Running head: A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 1 A Communicative Speaking Course for 9th Grade Secondary School Level of a Public School in Soledad, Atlántico, Colombia Leonardo Fabio Benavides Castillo Mastery of Arts in English Language Teaching Universidad Del Norte 2017 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 2 Table of Contents Abstract 7 List of Tables 8 List of Figures 9 List of Appendices 10 Introduction The Importance of English in the World 11 The Status of English in Colombia 11 The Status of English in the Local Context 12 Description of the Institutional Context 12 The Status of English in the School 13 Rationale Need Analysis Questionnaire results 15 15 Students’ target needs and contextual factors 16 Students’ learning needs 18 Students’ human needs and their confidence to speak 25 Synthesis of target needs and learning needs identified 26 Theoretical Framework The Definitions of Speaking 27 Speaking defined as a skill 28 Speaking defined as a human communicative act 29 Speaking as an ability to develop through classroom activities 29 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 3 Speaking defined as an interaction process of meaning construction 30 Speaking defined as a particular communication skill 30 Speaking Sub-skills 31 Knowledges and sub-kills to speak a foreign language 32 Vocabulary, pronunciation and language choices sub-skills 32 The spoken repertoire 33 The conditions and processes of speech production 34 Competences, abilities and skills to speak 34 The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching The concept of communication 36 The concept of communicative language teaching (CLT) 37 Trends and ten core assumptions of current CLT 39 Communicative activities for the development of speaking Skills 41 Communication games or game-based activities 42 Milling activities 42 Role plays 43 Rewriting dialogues 43 Dialogues 43 Flow diagram conversations 44 Information – gap activities 44 Surveys 44 Jigsaw activities 45 Communicative functions 45 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 4 Multiword sequences and functions 47 Functions as units of organization of communicative syllabuses 48 Adaptation of CLT in different educational contexts 49 Interaction and Language Learning The oral language and its interpersonal / interactional function 51 The interpersonal / interactional function of language and the SCT 52 The interactional competence 54 Interactional skills 56 Adjacency pairs 56 Turn - taking 56 Repairs 57 Feedback 57 Response tokens 57 Assessments or evaluative comments 58 Classroom Interaction and Language learning 58 Integrating Interactionist and Communicative Approaches to LT 59 Skill-Getting and Skill-Using Activities 62 Course Design Approaches to Course Design 64 Goals and Objectives of the Communicative Speaking Course 67 Syllabus Focus 68 A Skills-based Syllabus with Functions as its Unit of Organization 70 Teaching Points 72 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 5 Syllabus Sequence and Structure 72 Course Methodology Communicative principles for the speaking course 79 Communicative activities for the speaking course 80 Information gap activities 81 Information gathering activities 81 Communication games 81 Role plays 81 Conversations 82 Evaluation of the course 82 Audio or video recording 82 An adapted rating scale to assess speaking skills 83 A colleague´s semi-structured observations 84 Instruments for the students’ assessment of the lessons 85 Teacher’s reflections after each lesson 86 The Syllabus 88 The Lesson Plans 96 Piloting Initial Diagnostic Assessment of Speaking Skills 107 Lesson 1 Post-piloting Reflection 109 Lesson 2 Post-piloting Reflection 111 Synthesis of Piloting Results 115 Development of speaking skills 116 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 6 Favorable factors to implement CLT in the educational context 118 Factors hindering the implementation of CLT in the school 121 Conclusions 125 References 127 Appendices 134 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 7 Abstract The communicative approach to language teaching (CLT) considers the practice of communication as the main goal and key element to develop language learning. This paper reports the process of designing, partially implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of a communicative approach for the development of speaking skills of a group of 32 ninth graders students of a public school in Soledad, Atlántico, Colombia. In spite of the heterogeneity and irregularity observed in the group, the results obtained showed that a communicative approach can effectively contribute to develop some of the speaking skills focused and to enhance more favorable attitudes towards the practice of speaking skills in the classroom. Nonetheless, the piloting phase of the project also helped to define both specific favorable and hindering factors to take into account for the further adaptation of the approach in the institutional context selected. KEYWORDS: communication, motivation, interest, confidence, adaptation A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 8 List of Tables Table Page 1 A Key Strategy to Develop Students’ Speaking Skills 20 2 Type of Strategies Required to Develop Students’ Speaking Skills 21 3 Students and What They Need to Develop their Speaking Skills 22 4 Students and What Can Help them to Retrieve more Words 23 5 Students and their Confident to Speak in the Foreign Language 25 6 Categories of Communicative Functions 46 7 Goals and Objectives for the Course 67 8 Options for Syllabus Focus 69 9 Communicative Principles Selected for the Course 79 10 Quantitative Results of the Initial Process of Diagnostic Assessment 107 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 9 List of Figures Figure Page 1 The English Class as the Main Place to Practice English Language 16 2 Instrumental Purposes to Learn the Foreign Language 17 3 Classroom Interaction to Promote Confidence to Speak 19 4 The Students’ Preference of Pair-work 20 5 Options for Syllabus Sequencing 73 6 Global Results of the Assessment Process 116 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 10 List of Appendices Data Collection / Analysis Instruments or Materials Appendix Page A Structured Questionnaire and Students Needs 134 B The Cambridge ESOL FCE Analytic Rating Scale 138 C An Adapted Version of the Analytic Rating Scale 139 D Observation Checklist 140 E Students Self-Assessment Likert Scale 141 F Students’ Self-Assessment or Peers Assessment Format 143 Materials and Resources for Classroom Activities Appendix Page G Diagnostic Activity 144 H Emoticons Poster 146 I Jigsaw Activity 147 J Feelings Pieces of Paper 148 K Patterned Conversation Activity 149 L Question Game Activity 150 M Information Gathering Activity (Survey) 151 N “Emotibubbles” Activity 152 O Flow Diagram Poster 154 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 11 Introduction The Importance of English in the World In multicultural and multilingual countries people considers the English language as the universal master key to access to the socioeconomic, technologic, cultural and investigative development of the world. Experts observe two general tendencies towards this more and more influencing role of English as the world language. In an interesting article, Chowdhury (2013) defends this multifaceted accessing role of English language in the world. Especially concerning researchers’ aims, this author points to the role of English in the expansion of knowledge all along the world. Nonetheless, against this positive tendency, there can also be a negative trend in some countries represented by resistance movements against what they call the intrusion of linguistic imperialism and its negative consequences on the local society, culture and languages. Chowdhury (2013) controverts this negative tendency explaining that borrows and lending produced by contacts between two languages, get each other complemented and enriched. The Status of English in Colombia In Colombia, there seems to be an arising desire of increase the role of the English Language in the society especially in terms of access to information, better quality in education and technology. A sample of this can be the national educational policies in Colombia such as the national bilingualism program and the formulation of national standards and basic learning rights in the foreign language related to parameters established in the Common European Framework (CEF). As a requirement for Colombia in its attempt to make part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), other national policies as different mastery studies by means of grants programs for English teachers, immersion A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 12 programs, the requirement of proficiency level tests for new professionals in a large amount of university careers and the support of native teachers to supposedly strengthen the teaching practices in primary, secondary school, can be seen as meaningful steps in the way to pass from being a highly monolingual Spanish speaker country to a multilingual and multicultural nation. This multiculturality will also demand the inclusion and promotion of some local samples of indigenous languages still surviving to the supposed advances in technology and access to knowledge production that English as the international language of the word assured. The Status of English in the Local Context In the local level, the particularities of the educational context of the selected public school in Soledad deserve the consideration of many aspects that can influence positively or negatively the learning- teaching process of English as a Foreign Language. In their local context, students have no many opportunities or situations where they could apply the language they are learning in their real daily life. Perhaps, similarly to contexts where English is seen as the foreign language to learn, in the local context there is a generalized and accepted idea about the importance and need of learning English because of the mayor occupational or educational opportunities it can provide. In the students’ context, it also can be perceived some presence of use of English language, especially in written way, in advertisements of commercial sites and public tourist places. The influence of technology and mass media in the context, fundamentally through music, television, movies and magazines, allows the students have an important source of input in the foreign language. Nonetheless, there can be scarce chances for the oral or written interchange of information in English due to the monolingual nature of the students’ local contexts. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 13 Description of the Institutional Context The setting of this classroom research is a public school with a tradition of 50 years offering educational service especially to families with low socioeconomic status from popular neighborhoods like San Antonio, Pumarejo, Oasis, Manuela Beltran and Soledad 2000. Currently, at primary school the average number of students is about 25 per group while in secondary school is about 40 (although generally in 6º grade the average is higher with almost 50 students per group). In high school, the average number of students is about 35 due to the requirements of the integration with the SENA (10º and 11º grade students receive formation in Administrative Assistance and Contact Center). A high number of students come from dysfunctional families headed by single mothers, grandparents or aunts normally working in different fields while students are at the school (this is normally a constraining factor for summoning parents to reunions at school). The age range of student is from 5 to 11 years in primary school and from 11 to 17 years old in secondary and high school. The Status of English in the School At the PEI of the school, English is considered a basic obligatory subject, but in the school syllabus for primary school there is only one hour a week of English. Several primary school teachers are maybe agree with this low week intensity given to the study of the English language in the curriculum and they recognize that they have no even a minimal level of domain of neither English language nor knowledge in English Language Teaching (ELT). When passing from primary school to secondary school, most of students only have a minimal and slight prior knowledge on the foreign language beyond basic vocabulary categories as colors, animals, numbers from 1 to 20, public places and so on. In secondary and media levels, the weekly intensity of English in the syllabus is three hours a week. Furthermore, A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 14 students usually are perceived as requiring a work to improve or make more positive their attitude towards the learning of the Foreign Language. All these negative factors can be negatively influencing the learning on the target language and specially the results of national standardized tasks (SABER) where the level of students is low with an average of 47 / 100. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 15 Rationale Needs Analysis The process of need analysis in the classroom firstly enabled the definition of speaking as the more interesting and motivating skill to develop by the students. In its turn, the use of more interesting activities was also defined as a possible strategy to catch and keep the attention and involvement of the students in the English class. These findings are fundamental to support the decisions on the type of course to design and pilot in the intervention phase of this classroom research. Some other crucial and related decisions for the course design will necessarily require the information about the needs, interests, motives, likes and preferences of the students at the moment of the practice of their speaking skills in the foreign language. In order to collect data to determine such important target and learning needs, I applied a simple questionnaire with 12 related questions (see Appendix A) to the 30 students attending the class. The three first questions pointed to confirm the conditions of the local context of the students where instrumental motivation to learn English, the monolingual nature (use of Spanish) of the context and the definition of the school as the only place to practice speaking skills predominate. The rest of questions were oriented towards the topics, modalities of work, learning strategies, mediational tools and activities to facilitate the development of their skills to speak in the foreign language. The questionnaire combined multiple choice, closed, frequency and ranking questions for a more complete and useful gathering of qualitative research data. Questionnaire results. A research question approach suggested by Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) to analyze data obtained was firstly useful to define the focus on speaking skills and more interesting activities as the central issues to guide further decisions and actions in this classroom research. In this need analysis stage under this analysis approach, all relevant A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 16 data to answer or clarify an issue of the interest of the teacher-researcher are grouped and analyzed together (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2007). Then, in this need analysis pointing to define specific learning and target needs, some aspects or issues have to be defined to guide the analysis of the data collected. Subsequently, the 3 aspects of interest to guide this data analysis are: Students’ target needs and contextual factors. Students’ learning needs and mediational means to facilitate the practice of speaking skills Human needs and students confidence to speak Students’ target needs and contextual factors. In an attempt to determine in a more reliable way the different interests, motivations and purposes of the students having an influence in their learning of the target language, questions about the usefulness and presence of English in their context are justified. The hard and challenging reality of a social monolingual context with few places and opportunities to use English had been declared by students. As Figure 1 shows, according to them, the English classes at school were indeed the only context or place where opportunities to practice and use the foreign language are provided. 25 20 15 10 23, 76,66 % 5 6; 20 % 0 Yes No 1, 3,33 % Others (Home) Figure 1. The English class as the only place for students to practice the English language A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 17 Subsequently, regarding the students’ answer, it is natural not to find an inmediate and contextual utility to the learning the foreign language. Hence, the classroom has to be a motivating setting for the practice of the foreign language and the development of abilities has to be basically projected to eventual future educational or occupational needs of the students. To reinforce this finding and consolidate a further understanding of the students’ target needs, a simple question about the type of future needs that students proyect involving the potential use of the foreign language was required. The questions included options such as getting new knowledges (academic purposes), interact with other people (interactional purposes) and opening major educational or occupational future opportunities (instrumental purposes). Regarding the students’ answers, it is clear that there are purposes behind the english language learning that can go beyond the simple fulfillment of the school curriculum and the obtainnance of good grades in national standardized tests. Most of students declared that the learning of the target language can be useful to increase the possibilities of enriching their educational profile or getting a better remunerated job in the future. The Figure 2 represents how instrumental motivation with a 73% of the answers predominated as the main kind of motivation for the learning of English that students declared. 25 20 15 10 5 22; 73.33 % 6; 20 % 0 To open major oportunities of working or studying abroad To get new knowledge 2; 6.66 % To be able to talk to other people in English Figure 2. Instrumental purposes of the students to learn the foreign language A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 18 Instrumental motivation can be maybe the most common type of motivation towards the learning of English in students of EFL countries. As a consequence of the limited opportunities to use the language in the daily life (as presented in Figure 2), the learning of the target language at school is mainly associated to the acquisition of skills or strategies which can be needed in a future occupational or educational settings. In spite of this idealist projection towards probable future needs, the hard social and economic reality of students with few chances to study superior education after high school or the necessity of getting any good job to help their families, can affect their proclaimed motivation to learn English. The exploration of other type of motivations, maybe more related to present and local problems in the classroom can be useful to promote different purposes in the class. Perhaps it can be motivating for students to feel more confidence of their own capacities to learn the foreign language or maybe a variation in the nature of the activities to do in the class and the materials to employ can be important motivational strategies to promote and reinforce in their present as high school students. Students’ learning needs and mediational means to facilitate the practice of speaking skills. Speaking was selected by the students as the most difficult but at the same the most interesting and motivating skill to learn and practice in the classroom. Related to the development of speaking skills, the confidence to speak can be one of the areas of improvement that can be essential to motivate the students to speak. The fact that for the students the classroom was the only place to practice the target language implies that all what happens inside the classroom need to be considered for the improvement of the students’ speaking skills. On this issue, a strong belief on that all what happens in the classroom is principally determined by how teachers and students interact in a class made necessary to question students about it. Most of students confirmed the importance of classroom interaction to promote the A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 19 development of speaking skills. In Figure 3 it is represented how 97 % of them declared that interaction in the classroom can be a motivating element to promote their confidence to speak in the foreign language. 35 30 25 20 15 29; 96,66 % 10 5 1; 3,33 % 0 Si No Figure 3. Classroom interaction as a key element to promote confidence to speak Thus, classroom interaction both in terms of teacher – student interaction and especially concerning student-student interaction can be one of the factors to explode due to its unavoidable condition of speaking and listening to others in the context of a lesson. In a previous apart, the students had been agreed with the great importance and usefulness recognized to the class interaction as a key element for the development of their speaking skills in the foreign language. As a way to confirm that claim, students were asked to define the type of skills to focus during a potential speaking course. In consonance with the idea of interaction, the students opted for the practice of conversations in class as the most adequate and helpful skill to focus in class. As represented in Table 1, 23 out of 30 students (76.6 %) defended the need and importance of practicing conversations in class as a useful strategy to develop or improve their speaking skills in the foreign language. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 20 Table 1 Practicing Conversation as a Key Strategy to Develop Students’ Speaking Skills Activity Students Percentage To practice conversations in class 23 76.66 % To read in loud voice 4 13.33 % To read 2 6.66 % To make oral presentations 1 3.33% Note. Most of students (76.6 %) think that the practice of conversations in class can help them to develop their speaking skills in the target language. The focus on the practice of conversations in class selected by the students is hence fairly interrelated with the importance given by them to interaction in class and with the preference of pair-work instead of individual or group work also declared by students. In Figure 4, the answers of the students about their preferred modality of work in class are presented. 25 20 15 21; 70 % 10 5 6; 20 % 3, 10 % 0 Pair work Group work Individual Figure 4. The students’ preference of pair-work (70 %) can be clearly related with the preference of the practice of conversation expressed in Table 1. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 21 The emphasis on the practice of conversation is class has been clearly demanded by students. Nevertheless, there can be within the concept of conversational skills a wide spectrum of skills, subskills and abilities which need to be similarly put into the students consideration to consolidate a more suitable making of decisions based on students’ interests and needs. Within that wide spectrum of conversational skills and according to the students level of proficiency in English, 3 specific conversational strategies were presented to students to choose: strategies to keep on conversations about interesting topics, strategies to use non-verbal elements when speaking and strategies to keep on communication while remembering required words or expressions. An extra option for any other eventual strategy to be suggested by students was also included. The results of these questioning are presented in Table 2 below. Table 2 Type of Strategies Required to Develop Students’ Speaking Skills Strategy Students Percentage Strategies to keep on conversations on interesting topics 20 66.66 % Strategies to use non-verbal elements when speaking 5 16.66 % Strategies to keep on communication while remembering 5 16.66 % needed words or expressions Note. Most of students (66.66 %) consider strategies to maintain conversations about topics that they like as the most useful strategy to develop their speaking skills. From the analysis of this results, it is implied that the inclusion and constant use and retrieval of conversational or interactional skills to use gambits or routines likewise conversation A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 22 fillers and continuers have to be modeled, promoted and encouraged during the development of conversational activities in the speaking classes. Maybe the most important convenience of applying need analysis processes in a second moment is the possibility of ratifying or getting more precise information from the one analyzed previously. The issue of interesting activities as key strategy to increase the students’ attention and involvement in the class was now enriched with the inclusion of others options also known as primordial for the students learning. The importance of focusing on problematic areas of language learning such as vocabulary appropriation and confident pronunciation has necessarily to be combined with activities and topics which increase the interest of the students and their motivation to learn the foreign language. Results of this issue are presented in Table 3. Table 3 Students and What They Need to Develop their Speaking Skills Need expressed Students Percentage To previously know vocabulary and its pronunciation 14 46.66 % Interesting and easy to do activities 11 36.66% Interesting topics or topics that students like 5 16.66% Note. Vocabulary appropriation and interesting activities were selected by students as key aspects to develop their speaking skills. What it is implied from the results in this segment is the fact that there can be also a potential relation, between the level of interest and engagement of the students in a lesson and the amount of words practiced that can be retrieved by students in further lessons. Interesting activities, varied ways to present and use vocabulary and some eventual practice of A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 23 pronunciation to increase confidence to speak can be really useful for the students to develop their speaking skills in the foreign language. Tied to the different learning styles of the students, the issue of vocabulary appropriation above mentioned can be a multifaceted and challenging aspect to be questioned about to the students. Maybe there are students who are more visually influenced by images. Perhaps there can be other ones who are more aurally sensible. Other ones can be more effective vocabulary learners when seeing the use of the words in the context of a text. Other ones can believe that it is better for them to write and write the words in the context of a written production. Finally, other ones can feel that the oral individual or choral repetition in class can really help them to learn words effectively. In the case of the group selected on this so interesting aspect, Table 4 shows that most of students (16 out of 30 questioned) are more visually and aurally influenced when learning vocabulary. Nevertheless, other types of learning styles need to be also covered during a lesson taking into account that almost the other half of the group distributed their answers in a varied set of possible options including mimic, pronunciation and non-verbal elements, constant use of the words or expressions in class, to use the words within contextualized statements, texts or short conversations and others. Table 4 Students and What Can Help them to Retrieve more Words when Speaking Strategy preferred To see images or real objects and listen to their pronunciation Students 16 Percentage 53.33 % A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE To listen to the words’ pronunciation complemented with 24 3 10 % 3 10 % 3 10 % 2 6.66 % mimic and other non-verbal elements The constant use of the words in class when interacting with partners and the teacher To listen to the words used in statements related to aspects of the students’ context or culture To practice simple conversation where the words or expressions are used To learn by heart lists of words at home and do oral tests 2 To read simple texts with the words to learn included 0 To write simple texts using words to learn 1 6.66 % 3.33 % Note. In spite of the high preference of visual – aural strategies to learn vocabulary, the varied set of other options selected can be seen as a valuable evidence of the varied learning styles in the group. The varied presence of vocabulary learning styles according to the results obtained confirmed the usefulness of using both visual and aural means to mediate the learning of vocabulary in the students. Nevertheless, the need of pronunciation practices, even choral repetitions, the use and finding of the words in varied sources (texts, conversations, writing activities), the constant use and retrieval of the words in class and even the complementation of meaning with mimic, real objects and other non-verbal elements need to be also exploited for an integral and inclusive approach of this linguistic skill. Varied ways to present vocabulary and interesting pair-work activities requiring the retrieval of vocabulary seen within conversational practices about topics that students like are, in this way, fundamental findings obtained in this A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 25 need analysis and they need to be considered in the formulation of a possible proposal to develop effectively the speaking skills of the students. Students’ human needs and their confidence to speak. In order to reinforce in the understanding of the factors that affects the confidence to speak in English, it is needed a social perspective on what happens in the classroom especially in a situation as unavoidable as profitable to learning as the students errors. A great deal of the students declared to feel worried or inhibited to speak by the way their partners react to someone`s mistakes. Maybe taking some too authoritarian correctives in the part of the teacher can be even more prejudicial to the students’ confidence to speak than the laughs of their partners. An enhancement of friendship and tolerance in the group can be worth. On this respect, Table 5 shows that the students’ declared preference of pair work can be also seen as a door open to the opportunity of reinforcing friendship as a human need to tolerate in a kind and friendly way the errors in the group. Table 5 Students and What They Need to Feel more Confident to Speak in the Foreign Language Need expressed To overcome the fear to make mistakes and that the Students Percentage 11 36.66 % 10 33.33 % 9 30 % group improve the way to react to someone’s errors To quickly retrieve vocabulary needed and to know how to pronounce it To previously practice with a partner or friend Note. In these three aspects, the relation of linguistic aspects (vocabulary and pronunciation) with social issues (living together skills, class climate and group work) is evidenced. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 26 At the light of these finding, it is required the attention of the teacher-researcher on specific speaking skills, emphasized linguistic elements and socio-affective issues that can work and affect simultaneously the development of speaking skills in the group selected. Synthesis of target needs and learning needs. The students of the group face the learning of the target language in a monolingual context with few opportunities to use it in their daily life out the school. In such context, the learning of the target language shows a basically instrumental motivation in the students projected towards potential major educational or educational opportunities in the future. Hence, it is necessary to explore immediate target needs more attained to awake other types of motivation related to specific problematic areas in the classroom. The crucial role that vocabulary and pronunciation abilities can represent within the wide spectrum of other linguistic skills was highlighted by the students. Around these skills, a useful type of motivation to be exploded inside the classroom is that motivation enhanced by the feeling of being capable to speak English with enough confidence. Attained to the different learning styles of the students, the classroom as the only place for students to practice the foreign language need to be thus, a high motivating setting where opportunities to practice orally the English language need to be provided. Confidence to speak, supported by pronunciation and vocabulary practices, can be also developed if friendship and tolerance to own and other’s errors are promoted. As a chance to promote these human values in the classroom, the preference of pair-work involving conversational practices about interesting topics are finally crucial elements to take into account for an effective development of the students’ speaking skills in the target language. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 27 Theoretical Framework In this section, initially, it will be presented a review on important theories about speaking and speaking skills that could be taken into account in the context of the teaching of English as a foreign language. Posteriorly, it will be included a subsection about an approach in relation to the preference declared by the students for the practice of conversations in class: the communicative approach to language teaching. Finally, this theoretical section will finish with interesting incomes about the interactional function of language, the interactional competence and the importance of classroom interaction in the language learning. As declared by students, this issue of interaction can be an important component for the improvement of their speaking skills in the foreign language. The theories included in this section can be then really pertinent for the design and implementation of this qualitative research oriented towards the implementation of a proposal to the teaching of oral skills in the educational context selected. The Definitions of Speaking Some authors define speaking as a medium, source or mode through which learners can communicatively acquire, learn or modify the language. Other authors have seen speaking more in the context of the classroom itself as the most important ability to unfold and in language course design as an important component to consider. In its turn and with the boom of the discourse analysis theories, speaking was defined as a process of interaction to construct meanings when people produce, receive and process information. Important findings about processing skills like conceptualization, formulation, articulation and self-monitoring involved in speaking as a kind of communication skill with specific features on grammar, vocabulary and patterns of discourse, have made feasible to assume the teaching of speaking beyond the usual pronunciation approaches proper of writing based models. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 28 Speaking defined as a skill. The tendency to define speaking as a skill surges from dividing the language into the elements that conform the usual contents of language teaching (Cameron, 2001). This tendency has made common to consider language as a linguistic system or a group of skills. Most of teachers can accept this division maybe influenced by the National Standards of Competences that separately include competences in each skill taken for grant that teachers are free to integrate them in effective ways. Nonetheless, Cameron (2001) affirms that this division of language into the 4 skills is not logical nor appropriate because teachers commonly add grammar, vocabulary and phonology to the 4 skills, although some syllabuses have turned into elements such as topics, functions and notions to describe how language is used in communication rather than merely regarding it as a set of skills. Based on this perception of language this author explains that: For young learners, spoken language is the medium through which the new language is encountered, understood, practiced and learnt. Rather than oral skills being simply one aspect of learning language, the spoken form in the young learner`s classroom acts as the prime source and site of language learning [...] New language is orally introduced, orally and aurally understood, and finally orally practiced and automatized (Cameron, 2001, p18). It is clear in this point how the simplistic definition of speaking as a skill can be complemented with a wider vision of it as a discursive skill to interact in the foreign language. The focus on form or linguistic approaches to teach speaking can be communicatively enriched with an opened door to situations where meaning is negotiated and interaction are primarily influenced by contextual aspects. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 29 Speaking defined as a human communicative act. Under the same conception and in similar way, speaking, as a human communicative act, has been defined by Mauranen (2006) like the principal and natural source used by children to acquire and modify language. "Speaking is the first mode in which children acquire language, it constitutes the bulk of most people`s daily engagement in linguistic activity, and it is the prime motor of language change" (Mauranen, 2006, p. 144). Mauranen (2006) also explains that speech is used to satisfy the communication as an essential human necessity and claims that speaking mechanism such as code-switching, code mixing and borrowing, appears in speaking earlier and can extend to a higher level than in writing. A clear implication that can be observed with this is the necessary change of emphasis from writing - centered models of teaching traditionally adopted to speaking -centered models that, as previously mentioned, redefine the stablished limits of linguistic, pragmatic and semantic for a more interactional and discursive analysis and use of this skill in particular communicative contexts. "For the last two or three decades or so, attention to language in use has expanded the linguist`s domain of interest far beyond the clause, into text and context of situation" (Mauranen, 2006, p.p. 144 - 145). The effective teaching of speaking has to go beyond the rigurosity in the use of correct and full structured patterns of written sentences to the contextualized use of speaking as an oral vehicle for the interchange of meanings in real communicative interactions. Speaking defined as an ability to develop through classroom activities. On the other hand, the importance of speaking and the subsequent necessity of language courses including enough speaking opportunities is, in his turn, presented by Ur (1996) who explains that speaking is the most important ability to develop through classroom activities and where speech is seemed as an important component of a language course. Culturally, Ur (1996) exposes, the A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 30 word "Speaker" is used to designate people who knows a language. It seem that speaking is including all other types of knowledge or skills. In addition, people who are keen on learning a foreign language is basically interested in learning to speak (Ur, 1996). This "holistic" concept of speaking in the popular belief can be seen as one of the reason that explains the generalized but inexact idea about the advantages of having native speakers highly fluent and proficient in the language classrooms. Speaking defined as an interaction process of meaning construction. Another interesting definition of speaking regarding its interactive and meaning construction nature was proposed by Brown (1994) and Burns & Joyce (1997) who affirmed that speaking could be defined as an interaction process where meaning is constructed throughout the production, reception and processing of information. In this sense, the contexts in which speaking happens, the interlocutors themselves, their collective knowledge, the physical environment and the purposes of speaking can influence its form and meaning (Burns & Joyce, 1997). Authors analyze the decreasing predominance of writing / translation-centered methods of teaching. The place of traditional methods focused specially on form is being taken by speaking - centered methods with no emphasis on mechanical repetition and accuracy but particularly on meaning and the ways and circumstances in which it can be expressed. Speaking defined as a particular communication skill. The analysis of differences between speaking and writing and their processing skills involved was the base for the Bygate (2002) definition of speaking as a particular kind of communication skill with typical grammatical, lexical and discourse patterns that are very different to those of written language. According to this author, speaking requires processing skills such as conceptualization, formulation, articulation and self-monitoring. The conceptualization is related to planning the A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 31 content of the message and considering the background knowledge, knowledge of the topic, the specific speech situation and patterns of discourse. The formulation includes finding the words and phrases to express the meaning. Articulation involves the motor control of the organs of articulation. Finally, self-monitoring is the process of distinguish and self-correct own errors. This 4 processes to be fast and successful need automation - to some extent in conceptualization, to a considerable extend in formulation and almost entirely in articulation - because humans do not pay enough attention capacity consciously to control the three types of process. Besides, automation is crucial for an elementary L2 speaker to control fluency and accuracy in speech (Bygate, 2002). This interesting findings around speaking can be interpreted, as it was previously mentioned, as important steps in the way to understand and describe the particularities of this discursive skill. To sum up, speaking as the most important and culturally appreciated discursive skill has been conceptually expanded breaking the traditional simplistic definition of one out of the four communicative skills to develop in the foreign language. The possibilities opened by the emphasis on meaning and the wealth of findings that discourse analysis can provide in the context of real communication, represent even a more profitable aspect to inquire in the search of a more and more complete and under consensus definition of what speaking is. Speaking Sub-skills Speaking a foreign language is a communicative skill that can be naturally / socially acquired (as in first or second language context of use) or it also can be acquired by instruction as in the case of countries wherein English is a foreign language. Different theories and hypotheses about the knowledge, abilities and skills needed to speak English as a foreign language have been arisen from disciplines as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 32 neurolinguistics. As a result of the findings exposed by these theories, some experts recommend the utilization of approaches focused on communication for the teaching of this skill. Knowledges, abilities and skills: key elements to speak a foreign language. Concerning the sub skills or sub processes behind the speaking skills, there seems to be a generalized perception among experts on the idea that for speaking English as a foreign language two principal elements are crucial: knowledge, abilities and skills. As a sample of this claim, Pawlak (2011) states that the features of speaking have typically been regarded in two main branches: the diverse kinds of knowledge that learners have and the skills needed to use this knowledge in real communication. These two branches have been named in different articles and by different authors like Tarone (2005) in terms of forms and functions; Bygate (2008) in terms of oral repertoire and oral processes; Thornbury (2005) in terms of what learners know and what learners do; and again Bygate (2002) in terms of language as a system and language in contexts of use. Clearly, in this point it is possible to label the sub skills that support the speaking skill in linguistic skills and communicative skills. Another important characterization of the speaking skill enacts the interdependence between sub skills associated to listening and sub skills related to speech production. Therefore, situated in the place of a speaker, there are some sub skills that can have a great influence in the quality of his or her speech. Vocabulary, pronunciation and language choices skills. Celce-Murcia & Olsthain (2000) declares that speaking requires control of both skills for listening comprehension and skills with reference to the production of speech. Among these last mentioned the vocabulary retrieval sub skills, pronunciation sub skills and the sub skills related to choice grammatical patterns are outstanding samples of sub skills that in any act of speaking can be involved in A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 33 unplanned and unpredictable situations. Here, it can be clearly seen the incidence of the three main kind of sub skills that Bygate (2008) had also explained: first, the command of the target linguistic knowledge that includes phonologic, grammatical and lexical selection; second, that speaker and hearer share background knowledge such as content and propositions. Finally, and considering contextual and interactionist approaches of speaking skill, the speaker and the listener also have to share and follow sociocultural rules of appropriacy. In this sense, according to Celce-Murcia & Olsthain (2000): For the speaker to be able to produce utterances that communicate his intended message, the three conditions need to be meet: The linguistic form should enable the hearer to make propositional identification; in addition, the physical context, shared world knowledge, and sociocultural norms should enable the hearer to come up with an interpretation of the intended message (p.166). The verbal utterances produced in any speaking act reflect in this way the knowledge of the speakers on the language and the repertoire of speaking skills and communicative strategies that they use. The incidence of a communicative intention or purpose can be also realized through the verbal utterances produced in the interactions (Celce-Murcia & Olsthain, 2000). The spoken repertoire. A third element can be added as a product of the current emphasis that language as discourse and interactionist theories of communication has taken into the context of English language teaching. Including this third discursive element, Bygate (2009) groups the requirements for speaking a foreign language in three categories: the spoken repertoire, the conditions of speech and the processes of oral language production. The repertoire includes different linguistic aspects as phonological, lexico-grammatical (syntactic and morphological sources, lexis, likewise formulaic and pragma-linguistic units) discourse A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 34 structures (pragmatic discourse structures and socio-pragmatic features) and purposes of oral discourse (interactional, transactional for conveying information and ludic). Pawlak (2011) considers that: Speaking is typically associated with short turns and frequent turn taking, pausing, false starts, hesitations, fillers, negotiation, repairs, communication strategies, the use of deictic pronouns, ellipsis, questions, negatives or disjuncts, although some of these are by no means confined to speech” (p. 5). The repertoire then comprises a wide spectrum of the linguistic knowledge and skills that any speaker needs for having a good performance when communicating his / her ideas in English as in a foreign language in oral way. The conditions and processes of speech production. Regarding the condition of speech (Bygate, 2009) declares that the presence of an interlocutor, conditions of reciprocity, time pressure and the need to listen to what is being said are crucial elements. In its turn, the process of speech production, the known skill-learning model of Levelt (1978) includes 4 interrelated stages: conceptualization, formulation, articulation and self-monitoring as well as controlled and automatic processing. Competences, abilities and skills to speak. Other useful considerations of CelceMurcia & Olsthain (2000) take into account different competences and abilities needed for a speaker to produce spoken discourse in a foreign language. Among them, the grammatical competence is necessary to produce linguistically acceptable utterances in the target language. Also, concerning samples of abilities, the authors mention some such as the ability to select and use in their suitable morphological form the appropriate lexical items; the ability to organize the lexical items in a good word order, the ability to pronounce the words in an intelligible way, and A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 35 the ability to associate the verbal outcome to the context where the interaction takes place by means of the use of clues with an acceptable level of coherence and cohesion. Thus, speaking requires the use of oral production skills and the correlative domain of listening skills. Concerning oral skills, interlocutors have to share a set of linguistic, pragmatic, sociocultural and discourse competences associated to their human capacity to communicate. Speaking can be regarded as the hardest skills to learn because it implies the command of subskills as vocabulary retrieval, selection of grammatical forms and pronunciation in situations that most of the time are unplanned and unpredictable. However, in order to speak and be understood when speaking in a foreign language, a perfect level of knowledge, competences and control on them is not always required. With a good use of pragmatic and sociocultural elements, people can communicate orally in spite of a limited linguistic knowledge (CelceMurcia & Olshtain, 2000). Pawlak (2011) argues that for a foreign language learner with scant access to that language outside the school and with no opportunities of interaction with native speakers cannot be expected to control even a fraction of the repertoire described above and even advanced learners in SL contexts would experience great problems with displaying these resources in real spontaneous communications. Hence, it might be a next decision to make the determination of one specific aspect or sub skill from the above mentioned to focus in a process of classroom research around speaking. Obviously, this decision must specially be based on the particular features and constraining aspects that the specific educational context of students presents. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 36 The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching Based on the perceptions and findings of different authors like McDonough and Shawn (2003), Hedge ( 2000), Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000), Pawlak (2011) and Richards (2008); it is possible to declare that there are three main approaches (they could be called macro approaches) to the teaching of speaking skills: the traditional approach based on drills repetition from audio-lingual or grammar translation methods; the communicative, based principally in theories of Hymes (1972), Canale & Swain (1980-1983) and Bachman & Palmer (1982); and the interactional based on Young (1999)'s theories. In this apart, firstly, the concept of communication will be explained and secondly, the particular features of a communicative approach to language teaching will be presented to determine its suitability for the teaching of oral skills in the target language. The Concept of Communication. Communication can be defined as an exchange of information, opinions, ideas, knowledge and feelings between people (Revell, 1979). Communication also consists on the negotiation of information between at least two individuals by means of the use of oral and written visual modes, production and comprehension processes and verbal and non-verbal processes (Canale, 1983). In this construct, information being naturally communicated can be conceptual, social, cultural, and affective or even psychological (Canale, 1983). Despite these above definitions and similarly to other human phenomenon, communication is not an easy to define concept. On this respect, Sage (2006) claims that communication requires the gathering of information from diverse sources, and the clear expression of ideas about relevant contents taking into account established conventions and an attentiveness of our conduct influenced by the ways the others react to what we express and do. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 37 In his turn, Xin (2007) clarifies that when communicating not all people engaged share similar experience, personalities, metacognition and knowledge background; thus, authentic communication can be unpredictable, and be composed with less or more gaps of information. There is always something new to know to the recipients, there are always surprises, unexpectedness and unpredictability in genuine communication (Revell, 1979). Beyond the hard work to define communication, there seems to be at least a consensus among experts on the fundamental role of language in it. Revell (1979) claims that people use the language to communicate. Language is then a mean and an element to communicate. About this interrelation, Widdowson (1990) also declares that language cannot be analyzed on its own dissociated or isolated from its use as communication: “You cannot talk about communication without considering social meaning. Language is communication, is social meaning” (p.305). This declared and defended interdependence and interrelation between language and communication constitutes, in sum, the most relevant and important concept in this section. The concept of communicative language teaching. The mentioned complementation and broader perspective given to the concept of communicative competence by authors such as Canale & Swain (1980-1983), Bachman and Palmer (1982), Young (1999), but especially Richards (2006) and McDonough and Shaw (2003) have direct implications for the definition of a teaching approach that pretends to be called communicative. The concept of Communicative Language Teaching emerges at this point. Richards (2006) declares that Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) can be seen as a set of principles that guide the language teaching processes towards its most useful goal: communication or the development of the communicative competence. Thus, a communicative approach requires the selection, design and implementation of tasks, activities and materials that provide opportunities for communicative A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 38 practices inside the classroom. The obvious question that must guide the teacher's reflection on this issues is in what extent a totally communicative practice is an obtainable goal to achieve in context where English is a foreign language with low levels of proficiency, accuracy and fluency and a mostly isolated regard on the linguistic competence (component) of the communicative competence. In spite of this perception, the use of speaking skills in the classroom has the possibility of adapting a communicative view of language even with students at low levels of domain of the foreign language. When students are asked to use the spoken language in the classroom, teachers require them to participate in a process that involve both knowing the target language forms and functions, and also to know and consider the rules of interaction between the participants for making meanings and negotiation of meanings clear enough to be understood (McDonough & Shaw, 2003). Under the premise of a communicative approach, rather than a structural system, language is a vehicle for expressing meaning. Interaction and communication are the essential functions of this vehicle and its structure represents its communicative and functional uses. Hence, categories of functional and communicative meaning similar to those ones used in discourse are the basis units of language instead of grammatical and structural items (McDonough and Shaw, 2003). Different kind of language knowledge are put into practice when people make use of their communicative competence. Richards (2006) argues that know how to adapt the use of language to diverse functions, purposes, setting of the participants (using formal / informal speech); know how to differentiate between oral and written register when communicating; likewise understanding and producing different types of texts (narratives, reports, conversations, interviews) and keeping communication in spite of the limited knowledge of the language by A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 39 means of the use of communication strategies, are essential aspects of language that students need to know to as part of their communicative competence. These are aspects that teachers need to focus in an integral way in order to get an effective process of teaching of the foreign language oriented towards the development of the communicative competence of the students. Nonetheless, regarding the challenging and hard that can result to pretend covering all these aspects in a course, it can be useful for teachers to adapt and formulate several feasible guiding principles grouping these aspects for a communicative orientation of their practices in the classroom especially in terms of lesson planning, design of activities and materials and definition of teaching and learning procedures within a class. Trends and ten core assumptions of current communicative language teaching. Richards (2006) describe three main phases or trends in Communicative Language Teaching: the phase 1 that covers traditional approaches based on drills, repetition and grammatical emphasis; the classic communicative language teaching where the development of the communicative competence rather than grammar knowledge, was the new goal of language teaching; and current communicative language teaching with the following ten core assumptions: Interaction and meaningful communication make easier and more practical the learning of the second language. Chances for negotiation of meaning and meaningful interpersonal exchanges should be provided by tasks and exercises so that learners can expand their linguistic resources and differentiate several uses of language in context. Contents have to be purposeful, relevant, interesting and engaging to process in order to provide opportunities for meaningful communication. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 40 Several language skills, knowledge and modalities are put into practice when regarding communication as a holistic process. Underlying rules of use and organization of the language can be learned inductively or by discovery in activities that in this way facilitate the learning, analysis and reflection on the language features. Errors are a natural product of learning. Trial and error are part of the language learning as a gradual process that motivates the creative use of it but with increasing levels of accuracy and fluency. Diverse motivations and needs produce different rates of progress where students can develop their own ways to language learning. The use of communication strategies and effective learning are involved in successful learning of the language. Teachers in the language classroom have to be facilitators of the learning and creators of conditions in the classroom that drive to the practice, the reflection on the use, and the learning of the language. Collaboration and sharing in the classroom are essential elements of a classroom regarded as a community of learners. When analyzing these principles defined by Richards (2006), it can be stated that rather than conceiving a unique and universal approach to communicative language teaching, different principles and guidelines for current Communicative Language Teaching presented by Richards (2006), Larsen-Freeman (2000), Fazilli (2007) and ThiTuyetAnh (2015) can be considered for the adaptation of a model to set the methodological actions in the classroom. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 41 Communicative activities for the development of speaking skills. Clarifying the concept of communicative activity, Munby (1982) defined that: “Events consist of communicative activity and subject-matter. The term activity is to be distinguished from the various uses of the terms act and function. […] The term communicative activity as used here is the unit of communication that results from analyzing an event into component parts that facilitate socio-semantic processing or skills selection” (p.37). Such concept of communicative activity can imply a direct relation between all the events in a class and the skills or processes (components) needed to promote communication in the foreign language. Communicative activities require the inter-relation of different elements to be taken into account for an effective practice of communication in a class. In his turn, Littlewood (1981) also established a useful distinction between precommunicative and communicative activities. This author explained that the former are structural and quasi-communicative activities while the latter are activities that involve the practice of communicative functions and social interaction. In functional communication activities students are asked to apply their resources in the language in order to face a situation with an information gap to fill or with a problem to solve. On the other side, the consideration of the context and roles of the interlocutors and the decision on using formal or informal language, is a quality of social interactional activities (Richards, 2006). The constant use of dialogues where discourse markers, gambits and routines are seen and recycled along the course is one of the most outstanding teaching points that reflect the initial structural focus that this communicative approach can assume. The purpose of often using dialogues in class is not to teach the communication rules or pragmatic, sociolinguistic features A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 42 like in a pure communicative approach; the focus is rather a structural one, where no information or opinion gap tasks are given to the learners to practice real communication (McDonough and Shaw, 2003). The principled use of vocabulary and pronunciation teaching strategies during lessons planned under a communicative approach and the coherent selection and design of activities, tasks and materials with relation to the course goals and students’ needs, will be also one of the pillars of the methodology to apply. Communicative conditions as the information or opinion gap, a real purpose to achieve and the desire of communicate (McDonough and Shaw, 2003) are expected when students have reached a desirable level of domain of lexical and structural forms required through enough meaningful practice yet under teacher's control and monitoring. Communication games or game-based activities. McDonough and Shaw (2003) use the term “Game-based activities” to refer to those in which students can practice their abilities to describe, simplify, predict, ask for feedback for filling some information in a questionnaire or survey or deducing unknown information. The communication games or the game-based activities implies the requirement of some kind of fun or funny contest among students. They are useful to provide valuable opportunities to speak to the students and they also can be effective to materialize the idea of promoting communication in the classroom because of the use or exchange of information in collaborative way to complete an specific task or activity (McDonough and Shaw, 2003). Milling activities. Carrying out a milling activity in the classroom implies the use of the space to walk around the room asking questions to all the other students in order to complete a survey, discover a secret message or guessing a puzzle. Thornbury (2005) also claims that A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 43 milling activities can be useful to provide opportunities for the practice of formulaic language within a more communicative framework. Role plays. The practice of diverse social roles in different social contexts is important from the perspective of language teaching centered on communication. According to LarsenFreeman (2000), role plays can be arranged so that they can be highly structured or less structured. The former ones are those in which the teacher tells the pupils the situation, the roles and even the utterances that they are going to say. The latter, are those in which the teacher only explains the situation and assigns roles and purposes to the students and they decide and determine what to say. Rewriting dialogues. Thornbury (2005) declares that making the students adapt or modify written dialogues can be a profitable way to practice features of speech previously presented. In this way, the practice of features like discourse markers, fillers, continuers, evaluative response or response tokens, idiomatic expressions and formulaic expressions can be a more attainable goal since the interactional aspects privileged in a communicative / discursive approach to the teaching or speaking skills in English as a foreign language. As a previous stage of controlled practice, the rewriting of dialogues can be helpful to scaffold the expected posterior less controlled and more autonomous practice of dialogues among students. Dialogues. Dialogues are useful for the teacher when trying to privilege the emphasis on communication or classroom interaction. In its use, language is fundamentally dialogic; so, dialogues can be useful to practice any grammar or lexical aspect and to promote the interaction among students because pair-work is not an insuperable challenge to manage even in large classes with fixed furniture (Thornbury, 2005). It is also advisable to decrease the level of control of the teacher during the practice of the dialogues by going from an initial modelling A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 44 phase to student-student pair-work phase including both closed pair-work (all pairs working independently at the same time) or opened pair-work where one sole pair of students representing the dialogue in front of the class (Thornbury, 2005). Visual aids such as items on board, chunks on cards, pictures and words cues and flow diagrams can be helpful for students to mediate or facilitate the practice of dialogues and the appropriation of the expressions focused (Thornbury, 2005). Flow diagram conversations. This special type of mediated conversations implies the following of pre-stablished steps, usually speech acts or functions. Thornbury (2005) explains that in flow diagrams conversations the students follow the route passing through the different functions or acts and selecting adequate expressions according to how the conversation is being unfolded. Information – gap activities. In this activities, the teacher distributes among the interactants the information needed to complete a task. The students have to use the language, communicate so that this gap of information or knowledge is fulfilled to finally complete the task (Thornbury, 2005). Richards (2006) also claims that more authentic communication can be obtained in the classroom if learners go beyond practicing forms or structures of language for their own sake and utilize their own linguistic and communicative resources to find information required. Surveys. In this type of milling activity, the students walk around the classroom asking and answering questions, noting the answers and returning to their original groups to share the results collected. Then, a spokesperson from each group reports the findings to the class (Thornbury, 2005). A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 45 Jigsaw activities. According to Richards (2006), jigsaw activities are based on the information-gap principle. In these, typically, the teacher divides the class into two groups and each group has a different part of the information required by the other to complete a task or activity. The students have to get the pieces of information together to complete the whole. When doing so, they need to use their resources of language in order to communicate in a meaningful way and by means of this, participate in the practice of meaningful communication (Richards, 2006). Communicative functions. A function can be defined as “the use to which language is put, the purpose of an utterance rather than the particular grammatical form an utterance takes” (Savignon, 1983, p.13). Since language and verbal communication are basically human behaviors, functions in language have been an extended subject of study of linguistics for many years. Jakobson (1960) declares that a different function of language can be assigned to the diverse factors involved in verbal communication such as addresser, message, addressee, context, contact and code. In this sense, according to Jakobson (1960) functions assigned to language are referential function (focused on the context), expressive function (focused on the addresser), conative function (focused on the addressee), poetic function (focused on the message), phatic function (focused on the contact/channel) and metalinguistic function (focused in the code). Similarly, Halliday (1973) proposes a list of different functions: instrumental (satiating material needs), regulatory (controlling the behavior of people), interactional (keeping social relationship), personal (expressing personality), heuristic (studying the environment), imaginative (creating and playing) and representational (expressing propositions). Naming them in different way, Robinson (1972) list similar functions such as conformity to norms, encounter A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 46 regulation, avoidance, regulation, enquiry, performative, affective, marking of emitter, role relationship marking, referential instruction and metalanguage functions. In its turn, Wilkins’ (1973) presents a list of semantic-grammatical categories and a list of categories of communicative functions: modality, moral evaluation and discipline, suasion, argument, rational enquiry and exposition; personal emotions, emotional relations and interpersonal relations. These communicative categories are shown in Table 6. Table 6 Categories of Communicative Functions Category and description Speakers’ intention and attitudes Modality: utterances in which the truth value of the Certainty, necessity, conviction, volition, propositional content is modified in some way obligation incurred, obligation imposed, tolerance Moral evaluation and discipline: utterances involving Judgement, release, approval, disapproval assessment and judgements Suasion: utterances designed to influence the behavior Suasion, prediction of others. Argument: categories relating to the exchange of Information asserted and sought, agreement, information and views disagreement, denial, concession Rational enquiry and exposition: categories related to Implications, hypothesis, verification, conclusion, the rational organization thought and speech. condition, result, explanation, definition, cause. Personal emotions: expression of personal reactions to Positive or negative events A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Emotional relations: expression of response to events 47 Greeting, sympathy, gratitude, flattery, hostility usually involving interlocutor. Interpersonal relations: Selection of forms a. Status appropriate to relationship of participants. b. Politeness Note. These categories are proposed by Wilkins in his work Grammatical, Situational and Notional Syllabuses (1972) According to Munbey (1982) there is a macro sense and a micro sense to use the term function: these categories of functions presented by Wilkins can be labeled as micro functions while the ideational, interpersonal and textual functions of language described by Halliday are evidently macro-functions. Multiword sequences and functions Regarding the interrelationship between language and context, Nattinger and Decarrico (1992) declare that there are multiword sequences – they call them lexical phrases – that serve a taxonomy of three central functions of language: social interaction, necessary topic and discourse devices. Social interaction sequences are related to the maintenance of social relationships. They consist of conversational maintenance (e.g.; how are you?; excuse me), and functional meaning associated to conversational purposes like expressing politeness (e.g. thanks very much); doing questions (e.g. do you like?); doing requests (e.g. may I X?); offering (e.g.; would you like X?); doing complying (e.g. of course); doing answers (e.g. oh, I see) and asserting (e.g. I think that X; there is/are/was/were X). Necessary topics are phrases emphasizing domain-specific topics which usually feature in every day conversations. Some of them are: in autobiography, the use of formulaic expressions such as my name is…, I am from …, and I’m X years old, would be very useful. In a situation of shopping, expressions such as A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 48 how much is X?, I want to buy X, too expensive, cost X dollars can be recurrent and highly necessary for using in every day conversations. In their turn, discourse devices are logical connectors (e.g. as a result); temporal connectors (e.g. and then …), fluency devices (e.g. you know; it seems to me that), exemplifier (e.g. for example; it’s like), evaluators (e.g. as far as I know) and so on. According to Nattinger and Decarrico (1992) these three main categories has a number of subcategories related to more specific functions and meaning. Functions as Units of Organization of Communicative Syllabuses For a more integral development of the communicative competence of the students as methodological support for the development of their speaking skills, it has been very important to include functional and interactional elements to complement the traditional structural focus in language teaching. Stern (1981) argues that the study and practice of structural, functional and sociocultural aspects should be offered by any objective and analytical approach to language learning. The design of syllabuses with focus on the development of oral skills requires communicative approaches that take the place of the traditional grammar-based syllabuses. A communicative syllabus is built around skills, notions, functions, tasks, activities and materials not organized around grammatical -structural units. Furthermore, in a communicative approach to the teaching of speaking, fluency is the most targeted aspect and this can be developed by means of the implementation of activities or tasks around information or opinion gap, role plays, communication games, group discussion, feedbacks, use of conversation markers and gambits. In other words, tasks that provide opportunities to the learners for the practice of communication in levels very closed to communication in real contexts, in spite of limited proficiency levels in the foreign language (Richards, 2008). A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 49 As previously stated, for speakers of English as a foreign language there is no need of a perfect level of control and use of knowledge and competences to speak and be understood when speaking; instead of that, a good use of pragmatic and sociocultural elements can be useful to communicate orally despite a limited linguistic elements (Celce – Murcia & Olshtain, 2000). This idea keep a direct relation with the selection of a communicative approach to the teaching of speaking since the possibility of placing this transitory stage in the way to the development of communicative and interactional competences which maybe need a higher level of domain of the competences mentioned for speech production. Adaptation of communicative approaches in different educational contexts. There have been varied attempts to adapt Communicative Language Teaching to multiple teaching contexts and varied types of learners. Current trends of this approach have evolved to provide a door opened to new adaptations considering no a universally applicable version but a set of teaching principles that keeps the essence of CLT. Richards (2006) argues that principles of CLT today can be implemented in several ways, taking into account the context of teaching and features of the learner such as their learning goals, age and English level. The implied possibility of reviewing different models and adapting or arranging a contextualized one guided by agreed principles of Communicative Language Teaching can be seen as an important theoretical support to revalidate the purpose of a communicative teaching of oral skills in English as a foreign language. This possibility of adapting a communicative approach to the particularities of an educational context also depends on the teacher's good perceptions about the advantages of this perspective of teaching and the coherence established between his / her goals for the course and the needs of his / her students. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 50 However, there is evidence to suggest that teachers who have more freedom in decision-making and who see value in a communicative approach, either because its goals coincide with their learners' needs or because they see value in the kind of activities it offers, can adjust the approach to suit their own circumstances (Hedge, 2000, p. 70). Therefore, the adjustment of a communicative approach and its degrading into a previous eventual stage: the pre-communicative activities is a free decision to make based on the teacher's belief on the positive results that this approach can produce if the activities, tasks and material selected for a lesson are appropriate considering the learners' needs and difficulties likewise the goals established for the speaking-centered course. The selection of a communicative approach for the development of the course is based on the belief that some sort of communicative practice in the classroom can be an attainable goal despite the limited knowledge of the students in the foreign language. In this scope, communication or the development of the communicative competence of the students will be the objective of the course with the logical assumption that this communicative emphasis will be the key element for the learning of the target language within the context of communication or interaction in the classroom. On the implications of this communicative approach to language teaching in the classroom, a move from a grammatical syllabus to a communicative one is reflected in a change of focus from structures, vocabulary and pronunciation to settings, functions, notions, and so on. The communicative method focuses on the fact that interactions in the classroom can be necessary requirements or replications for a communicative interchange (Fazili, 2007). The interdependence between language, communication and interaction is then a solid framework A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 51 for the arrangement of a model which preserves the principles of Communicative Language Teaching oriented towards the development of the communicative competence usually defined as “the ability to create meaning when interacting with others in the target language” (Norland and Pruett-Said, 2006, p.30). Interaction and Language Learning The oral language and its interpersonal / interactional function. Along the history of language studies several experts have tried to define and analyze language starting with the consideration of its purposes or functions. Brown and Yule (1983) defined transactional and interactional functions of language; Shumin (2002) also distinguishes transactional and interactional functions specifically for spoken language and Richards (2008) classifies oral language (talks) in terms of transaction, interaction and performance. Lastly, in his functional model of language, Halliday (2009) defines language as a meaning-making system with ideational, interpersonal and textual functions. Transactional and ideational functions of language according to Brown and Yule (1983); McCarthy (1991); Shumin (2002) and Richards (2008), refer to the conveyance of information and ideas; likewise to the language resources to represent the experience of people in the world (Derewianka and Jones, 2012). Interactional and interpersonal functions of language have to do with the creation and maintenance of personal relationships with a basically social function (Brown and Yule, 1983; McCarthy, 1991; McDonough and Shaw (2003); Thornbury, 2005; Richards, 2008). Derewianka and Jones (2012) explain that interpersonal (interactional) functions of language are related to language resources to interact with others, express feelings, take a position or make judgements. In this point, and in spite of the richness and differences in A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 52 perspectives, it is possible to see the relation or correspondence between interactional and interpersonal functions of language. Transactional and specially interactional / interpersonal functions of language can be easily regarded and combined in human exchanges in daily life. The fact that a great amount of our daily communication remains interactional demonstrates that it is essential to be able to interact in a language (Shumin, 2002). Due to this importance assigned, Richards (2008) characterizes talk as interaction as having a basically social function, reflecting degrees of politeness and the identity of the speaker, being formal or casual, using conversational conventions and many generic words; and being jointly constructed by speakers. Under these precepts, promoting learner-learner interaction can be essential for the teaching of language for communicative purposes (Shumin, 2002) because, as evoked by this author when citing Rivers (1987), communication is originated essentially from interaction. The interpersonal / interactional function of language and the sociocultural theory of learning. Language learning has been explained from behaviorist, cognitivist and sociocultural theories along the history. Thornbury (2005) clarifies that under behaviorist perspectives, language learning has been seen as an issue of formation of good language ‘habits’ by means of repeated reinforcement. Cognitivist theories, in their turn, explains language learning as a capacity to process information (similar to computing machines) and conceive the learning of a complex skill – especially speaking – as a capacity requiring to the learner to move from controlled to automatic processing. Differently to cognitivist theories and their emphasis on mental functions over social ones, sociocultural theories place learning processes in its social context: all learning, even the learning of a first or a second language, is mediated by socially and culturally constructed activity (Thornbury, 2005). A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 53 The concept of mediation is essential within the sociocultural theory. Language is considered from this theory as a symbolic tool or artifact to create a mediated or indirect relationship between ourselves and the world (Lantolf, 2000). Learning, under sociocultural scopes, is essentially a social phenomenon that demands activity and interactivity: “To achieve autonomy in a skill, the learner first need to experience other-regulation, that is, the mediation of a ‘better other’, whether parent, peer or teacher (Thornbury, 2005, p. 38)”. Regarding intrapersonal (thinking) and above all, interpersonal or social interaction purposes, learners go through stages in which they are first controlled by the artifacts, tools or objects surrounding, then, by ‘better ones’ others in their cultural environment; and finally, they get self-control on their own cognitive and social activities; in sociocultural theory, these stages are commonly referred as object -regulation, other-regulation, and self-regulation (Lantolf, 2000). The main difference between intermediate and advanced ESL speakers facing a difficult task can be perceived, according to Lantolf (2000), when the performance of the intermediate learners breaks down and they lose self - control or self-regulation over the mediational means available and need to be controlled or regulated by either objects or others in their environment: “More advanced speakers are able to control the mediational means afforded by the second language in guiding themselves through the task; in fact, to be an advanced speaker/user of a language means to be able to control one’s psychological and social activity through the language (Lantolf, 2000, p.6)”. The implications of such important insights from sociocultural theory are then notorious in EFL contexts with beginner students. Within this initial level of domain of the foreign language, the acceptance and even the necessity of both objects’-regulation, more capable peers’ regulation and teacher’s regulation in previous stages of practice of the foreign language can be A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 54 well theoretically supported in these notions. Hence, the pursuit and encouragement of more autonomous levels of performance will subsequently require the assistance of physical, symbolic and human mediation just like in the socially constructed nature of learning that sociocultural theory proclaims. The interactional competence. Concepts as linguistic competence and linguistic performance proposed by Noam Chomsky (1959) are considered the prime concepts for the development of the Hymes’ (1972) theory about communicative competence. Hymes (1972) explained that without rules of use the rules of grammar would be useless. In addition, the Hymes' notion of sociolinguistic competence, and the functional view of language in opposition to the structural focus of Chomsky's (1959) theory, also involved the term ability for use to refer to non-cognitive elements such as motivation, gameness, courage, composure, dignity, presence of mind, capacities and stage confidence. With a complementary purpose concerning second language acquisition, Canale and Swain (1980-1983) added the strategic competence and the discursive competence to the existing grammatical and sociolinguistic components of the communicative competence. In this point, according to Jhonson (2004) it has to be clear that although the model of Canale and Swain exclude the Hymes’ (1972) concept of ability for use; it implicitly includes this concept under the strategic competence and discourse competence. On the other hand, in this model rather than a social-reciprocal function, interaction has an internal role in the student's mind to interrelate the different competences; nonetheless, the mechanism or procedure to explain that connection is not defined. Anyway, the definition of the strategic competence as communicative verbal and non-verbal strategies used to compensate breaksdowns in communication; and discourse competence as that one associated to achieve coherence A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 55 and cohesion in a text, are very important elements for the complementation of the concept of communicative competence (Jhonson, 2004). A model of three elements: language competence, strategic competence and psychophysiological mechanisms was proposed by Bachman & Palmer (1992) in their communicative language ability model. The language competence is seen as conformed by two sub competence: the organizational competence and the pragmatic competence. Aspects as vocabulary, syntax, phonology and morphology belong to the organizational (grammatical competence) whereas textual competence refers to the knowledge of the conventions to connect utterances when forming a text. The pragmatic competence of this language competence is divided into illocutionary (functional) competence and sociolinguistic competence. The former is used to interpret utterances, sentences or texts regarding the intention of the users of the language. The latter is defined as the sensitivity to varied registers, conventions of language use shared in specific context (Jhonson, 2004). The inexistence of a general, universal language competence was the fundamental principle for the Young's proposal of the concept of interactional competence. The local nature of the language competence is tied to the specificities of the context or community where interaction is bound. Oral practices become instances of local interaction. "Interactive practices are recurring episodes of talk that share a particular structure and are also of sociocultural significance to a community of participants" (Young, 1999, p.118). The learners acquire varied types of resources (vocabulary, syntax, knowledge of rhetorical scripts and skills). In this way, more than a cognitive-mental aspect with internal competences taking place in the mind of an individual -as in Bachman's theory- interaction is a social issue where face-to-face contacts among all the interlocutors in interactive practices. Moreover, under this model of interactional A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 56 competence, knowledge of language is co-created among all the participants in interaction (He and Young, 1998; Young, 1999). Also, under this theory of interactional competence, meaning does not exist independently since it is rather negotiated and co-constructed in face-to-face interactions in local social contexts of communication (Jhonson, 2004). Interactional skills. In terms of talk as interaction, Richards (2008) lists diverse skills which can be involved in interrelated and simultaneous way. Skills like knowing how to open and close conversations, choose topics, make small talks, joke, recount personal incidents and experiences, take turns in conversation, use adjacency pairs, interrupt, reacting to others and use an appropriate style of speaking are considered necessary skills to perform talk as interaction. The implication of taking into account the preference of practicing conversations declared by students as key strategy to develop their speaking skills, make necessary a constant sight to these interactional skills and its promotion in the classroom. The pursuit of a more natural and less artificially prepared oral register in conversations is another profitable factor to point by means of the inclusion of these interactional skills in the language classroom. Adjacency pairs. According to Richards (2008) these constituted by a sequence of two related utterances that are uttered by two different interactants. The second statement is generally an answer or response to the first. For instance, greeting after a greeting, saying “thank you” after a congratulation, apologizing after a complaint, saying “thanks” after receiving a favor, accepting or decline after an invitation and so on. McCarthy (2002) also define adjacency pairs as “the pairs of utterances in talk, [which are] often mutually dependent” (p. 119). Turn – taking. The moments and the ways in which people take turns in conversation is observed by turn-taking (Burns, Joyce & Gollin, 1996). Turn taking analysis study how interactants hold talking turns, pass turns, enter and leave a talk (Wu, 2013). Body gestures, A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 57 overlaps, eye contact and pauses are linguistic or paralinguistic resources that interlocutors can use to take turns (Wu, 2013). In addition, people sometimes make use of backchannel responses like “mm”, “yeah”, “right”, “really” as a signal of that they do not want to take the speaking turn or “hold the floor” in conversations (McCarthy, 2002). Burns, Joyce & Gollin, S. (1996) also explain that overlaps in conversations can evidence moments of urgency, annoyance, disagreement or competition for a turn. Little competition for turns can be interpreted as a signal of cooperatively negotiated interaction. Pauses between turns can indicate that an interlocutor is deciding or choosing a correct response or unanticipated answer. Endings in longer turns can be signaled by laughter, pauses or fillers like “so” or “anyhow” (Burns, Joyce & Gollin, S, 1996). According to Wu, (2013), in terms of socio-cultural factors, the interpretation of these turntaking ways and moments can also be different according to the culture of the interlocutors. Repairs. During conversations, participants in interaction may make corrections by means of repairs. These repairs, as defined by Cook (1989) can be on their own initiative or “self-repairs” or be prompted by the other interlocutor (other-repair). Feedback. Wu (2013) claims that people in conversation need to give some type of feedback to the speaker as an evidence of the interest on what he or she is saying. Paralinguistic devices such as facial expressions and nodding, likewise some backchannels like “yeah” or “really?” can also be used as resources to give feedback during conversations. Response tokens. Goodwin (1986) uses this term to include different acknowledgement and feedback resources such as continuers, fillers and backchannel expressions that constitutes emergent elements to respond to the talk they are treating in a structure that is large and yet incomplete. Response tokens plays a non-evaluative stance within the talk and their function is to give feedback to who is talking and demonstrate affiliation in the interaction. Expression such A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 58 as “mm”, “ya”, “ahah”, “uhmm”, “yeah”, “okey”, “oh”, can be samples of response tokens during an interaction. Assessments or evaluative comments. During interactions, assessments consist on positive or negative comments about what the other person has said. They are evaluative stances on others’ utterance without treating the talk as preliminary to something else (Goodwin, 1986). Wu (2013) declares that conversationalists usually evidence their affiliation or empathy with each other in several ways by using assessments. According to Nofsinger (1991) expressions like “fantastic”, “good” and “how terrible” and so on, can be considered statements of evaluation or assessment during a talk. Classroom interaction and language learning. The use of interaction in the classroom as the medium for the learning and practice of the language requires knowledge associated to linguistic, pragmatic, sociocultural, strategic and interactional competences. In addition to this holistic knowledge, students are expected to know how to put it into practice when establishing a communicative act with partners and teacher. This communicative act has a permanent pedagogic purpose: learning a language; however, teachers also have the desirable option of proposing both personal and social purposes to provide classroom interaction with the unpredictable and purposeful conditions of a real conversation. The interactionist approaches are an umbrella term used to refer to different theoretical perspectives oriented to explain the relation between interaction and the learning of the language; it takes concepts such as negotiation of meaning, interactional modifications and recast to explore the interactive work that interlocutors do to maintain communication and solve the impasses during the process (Pawlak, 2011). Therefore, classroom can be a suitable context where interactions under pedagogical, personal and social purposes can enable both the learning of the language and the A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 59 practice of oral skills in the target language in communicative acts where meaning is negotiated and interlocutors share background knowledge and rules of use influenced by social issues and contextual factors. In terms of interaction as the most important source of information in this classroom research, the transition from initial teacher-centered interaction to desirable levels of student student or student-teacher interaction is also another essential goal to pursue specially in the selection of activities, tasks and procedures for a lesson. As a useful sample of this scaffolded transition, Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000) claim that for speaking activities, these can be developed on a sequence very easy to more complex tasks. For young students or pupils at beginning levels, the teacher might start with some king of games that need only one - word answers and progressively go to higher levels of difficulty where opportunities are given to the learners to express themselves making use of longer units of discourse. Here it is clearly seen the influence of the distinctions between skin-getting and skill-using activities proposed by River and Temperley (1978) to take into account in this classroom research. Integrating Interactionist and Communicative Approaches to Language Teaching. It is possible to see a direct relation between the interactionist and the communicative approach to the teaching of speaking regarding the mode and type or classroom interaction and the conditions of the communicative act. According to McDonough and Shaw (2003) any real communicative act integrate four special conditions: a desire to communicate, an intention or purpose to achieve, an information or opinion gap to fill and the selection of appropriate language according to interlocutors needs and the context or situation of communication. Interactionist and communicative approaches to the teaching of speaking imply these sin-equanom conditions that are highly determinative when defining activities, materials and A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 60 procedures within a lesson. Subsequently, the eventual inclusion of a third classroom element, the course-book, can have either a positive or a negative effect in the type and quality of interaction inside the classroom language. The importance of an autonomous and selfdetermining role of the teacher can be the most useful elements for the consolidation of personal pedagogical principles that guide the adaptation of tasks, activities and materials proposed by the course books in order to switch with the particular features and needs of the learners in a class. Taking into account the influence of classroom interaction in language learning, the teaching of speaking skills also requires a variation on the traditional role of the teacher as the provider of knowledge and evaluator of the students’ utterances in the known model InitiationResponse - Evaluation (IRE). The variation of this transmissionist role towards more interactional and communicative versions of teaching which promote and motivate different types of interactions especially between students is another interesting aspect to consider within an interactive approach. "Interaction is far less teacher-centered and focuses on learners speaking to each other for a specific reason in order to achieve a specific outcome" (McDonough and Shaw, 2003, p.141). The reflection on in what extent a fully communicative or interactive approach is suitable in contexts with low proficiency and constraining factors for the teaching of speaking skills in a foreign language, need to be a central issue to consider before the decision on adopting these approaches within a particular educational context with special cultural conditions for the learning of a foreign language. On this issue, Hedge (2000) argues that a communicative approach is only successful when different factors have been considered and addressed: for instance, the correspondence or compatibility between the existing teaching principles and the innovation targeted; the beliefs A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 61 and perceptions of the teacher about the relevance of this innovation and its impact regarding students’ needs; the quantity and quality of the resources and materials needed for the innovation; the extent of suitability between the procedures of the new approach and the existing procedures to orient classroom activities, and the consideration of eventual advantages and disadvantages of the innovation. All these elements will have a great influence in the decision of adopting a communicative approach and in the selection of aspects to adjust for this. Hence, there are necessary aspects to analyze before the decision on taking a change of direction from traditional repetition drills-based approach to communicative approaches for the teaching of oral skills in the foreign language. More than a unidirectional process where the teacher asks, the students answer and the teacher evaluate the quality of students’ answers; the development and practice of oral skills involve a more reciprocal scope of communication under the theories of classroom interaction. Rather than teachers' actions followed by students reactions, interaction is a two two-way reciprocal process where interlocutors' actions and roles can act upon each other. The possibility of interaction becoming co-operation or conflict depends on how intentions, attitudes and utterances are transmitted or interpreted by people. Where there are only action and reaction, no effective interaction or communication take place neither learning occurs (Malamah- Thomas, 1991). Under this perception, learning as the principal aim and evidence of effective teaching, requires the reciprocal condition that classroom interaction can provide for the development and practice of oral skills in the foreign language. Classroom communication has multiple purposes. The learning of the target language is undoubtedly the pedagogic purpose of classroom communication. When teachers under this purely pedagogic purpose teach formal elements of the language itself, explains about its use or A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 62 the culture from it belongs, this can be called classroom transaction. Beyond this pedagogic purpose, the teachers have the need of establishing administrative, organizational and even personal or social purposes for classroom communication. This kind of communication with more personal, administrative, organizational or social purposes can be seen as classroom interaction. Hence, good teaching involves the use of language for diverse purposes around the learning process. Nevertheless, to complement verbal language, the teacher can use nonverbal elements such as mime, pictures, diagrams, charts, gestures and tones in order to communicate more effectively a message (Malamah- Thomas, 1991). Skill- Getting and Skill Using Activities. In his model, Rivers (1972) propose two levels of language teaching: the “skill-getting” and “skill-using” activities. During “skill-getting” stage, activities are designed and implemented to provide chances to practice separately specific aspects of knowledge. In their turn, during “skill-using” activities, teacher should not support or direct the students’ performance and they work independently and autonomously in pairs or groups works. During the latter, learners can use any linguistic knowledge they have and in cases of being “at a loss of words” they can also use elements like pantomime, drawings, images and gestures to give to know meaning (Ohno, 2006). Consequently this model will try to switch the students declared need of previous practice on linguistic support (especially in vocabulary and pronunciation) for a more confident and fluency performance during final communicative activities of a lesson. The scaffolding of these communicative activities can be done by presenting the topic and vocabulary needed in creative ways, then, the practice of separate linguistic items throughout the use of different types of activities; the inclusion of some more practice on social formulas or interactional- A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 63 conversational strategies to interact in the classroom and a final use of communicative interaction activities like problem-solving activities or role-plays in various combination can promote the development of the communicative competence of the students (Poulston, 1974). On the other hand, it is also important to contemplate the methodological distinction between skill-getting and skill-using activities proposed by Rivers (1972) and some important insights from Poulston (1974) for a more valid and varied theoretical support for the model. The guidelines presented by these authors can be helpful to concrete a model for the development of the communicative competence of the students tied to the oral production in the foreign language. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 64 Course Design Approaches to Course Design It can be stated that, as teachers researchers, a constant reflection on particular conditions of the educational context can have an influence in decisions – making. A thoughtful consideration on specific favorable and constraining factors inside the classroom can have a huge impact on the way how language teachers conceive the three most fundamental aspects in course design: education, learning and language. Undoubtedly, these three aspects added to a continuous reference to students’ needs and features can have an enormous relevance in the design, implementation, evaluation and redesign of a course for the teaching of English as a Foreign Language. In this section, theorized and specially contextualized reasons for the selection of a hermeneutic approach to education, a sociocultural approach to learning and a functionalist-proportional approach to language, will be presented as a reliable base for the design of a course for the teaching of oral skills of the ninth graders students in a public school in Soledad, Atlántico, Colombia. The search of the so mentioned concept of integral formation of students and the subsequent development of cognitive and human competences for future educational or occupational opportunities is the principal pillar to support the educational horizon of the public school where this classroom research is undertaken. Unfortunately, and regarding the predominant academic scope under the learning and teaching practices, the low results in external and external tests and the need of promoting human values for better living together conditions make teachers researchers reflect on the extent in which the proclaimed integral cognitive - human formation is really an attainable mission. About the connection among education, language, learning and human behavior, Hvolbek (2013) declares that it is A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 65 necessarily incomplete to reduce the human understanding exclusively to the learning through physical and biological studies; language and thought have effects on human behavior which have to be considered to decline sociocultural prejudices, generate interest and expand favorable conditions of living life a human beings. In this sense, the design of a course in this classroom research takes distance from epistemological cognitive perspectives and adopts a hermeneutic approach to education where language as, an essentially human capacity, would be considered the principal vehicle for the communication, learning and promotion of human values for and principles for a more pacific and respectful living together abilities inside the classroom. The adoption of a socio – cultural approach to learning tied to this hermeneutic approach to education is theoretically supported by the fact that communication and learning are basically social issues where learners as human beings share perceptions and ideas conducting to understand and interpret the world around. Learning as socially settled activity with its basement in a social ontology where the person is considered as an active being, involved in activity in the world; thus, learning is mainly a process of coming to be, of building identity in activity in the world (Lave, 1992). In their turn, Packer & Goicoechea (2000) also state that as an integral element of wider ontological modifications derived from participation in community of practice, learning implies practices for its members, potential ways of being human and potential means to understand the world with the body, tools and symbols and at the same time throughout participation in practices that are social and demands interaction and relationship with other people. Concerning the approach to language, the possibility of a proportional syllabus to provide a previous linguistic base for later stages of practice of communicative functions is mentioned by Yalden (1987) when she proposes a grammatical-semantic organizational support, A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 66 a linguistic component based on language functions and themes selected according to the interests of students. With beginners of language learning – as in the particular case of the students in this research - the teacher then can place more focus on structure before going to functions and then using or applying the language in creative way by means of the realization of tasks or topics that awake the interest of the students (Yalden, 1987). This proportional approach “would seem to allow the syllabus designer the most freedom to respond to changing or newly perceived needs in the learners, and at the same time provides a framework for the teacher who may not be able or willing to go ‘fully communicative’ (Yalden, 1987, p. 120)”. Nonetheless, preserving the desire of a communicative practice of the oral skills inside the classroom, the researchers in this classroom research are more agreed with Richards ( 2002) and his claim “From the perspective of communicative language teaching, learners’ needs and wants inform the teaching - learning process, and the emphasis is on using the language in stimulating communicative activities” (p.76). The proposal of a communicative approach for the teaching of oral skills can be, in this way, a more feasible goal to achieve if the three crucial approaches above explained guide the decisions and actions in this course design. The tripartite connection among a hermeneutic approach to education and a socio – cultural approach to learning and the perspective of a functional proportional approach to language can consolidate a solid and coherent basement regarding the principal role that language functions can play in terms of communication, interaction and negotiation of meaning in the classroom. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 67 Goals and Objectives of the Communicative Speaking Course As previously stated, decisions on the most coherent approaches to education, learning and language regarding are guided by reflections on the particularities of the educational context and considerations on different aspects of the learners. A systematic process of need analysis allows both a more adequate selection of contents in the course and fundamentally a useful distinction between a course of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and a traditional course of General English. Instead of the existence of the need, the awareness of the need is what makes the distinction between ESP courses from General English courses; in ESP courses the contents can result more acceptable and reasonable since students, sponsors and teachers are aware of the needs or reasons that support the language learning and the potential that can be gotten (Hutchinson & Waters, 1991). Under this perception, after the analysis of the data collected for the analysis of needs, interests and wants of the students in relation to the purpose of developing speaking skills in the classroom, the goals, expressed in terms of target, language and human goal are presented in the following table: Table 7 Goals and Objectives for the Communicative Speaking Course Goals Objectives Target Goal: Development of Students should be able to use every day expressions and handle speaking skills very short social exchanges on very familiar topics. Learning Goal: Encouragement Students should be able to make use of different interactional of interactional skills skills A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 68 Human Goal: Encouragement of Students should be able to keep a friendly, tolerant and respectful friendship and living together relationship with their partners skills. Note. These objectives were defined after a classroom research process of need analysis using semi-structured instruments as interviews, questionnaires and observations. Syllabus Focus Among several models of teaching speaking, it can be a worth decision the mentioned adoption of the skills-getting and the skills-using distinction of Rivers (1972) complemented with other authors’ guidelines as the model to guide actions in the classroom under a communicative approach. Nonetheless, this decision implies directly the making of new in this classroom research. Subsequent decisions on what to teach and then how to organize and sequence the contents selected must be also thoughtfully made in this starting section of course design. On this aspect, Johnson (2004) declares that as a central element in the design of a course, the design and implementation of a syllabus involves multiple issues for its utilization in particular programs of language teaching: how the selected syllabus will have to be adapted to a determined level of learning and to a local context; what language items and contents the syllabus will include; how to structure lessons units, and what methodology will be used to carry the syllabus contents to the learners. Based on the classification proposed by Robinson (1991:35) complemented with the inclusion of the learning-centered approach presented by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and content-based focuses, Moss (forthcoming) suggests five options for the selection of a syllabus focus. These five options and a brief description of them are showed in Table 8. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 69 Table 8 Options for Syllabus Focus Syllabus Focus Basic description It gives emphasis to the learning of one or Skills-Based (Language and/or learning skills) more of the four macro language skills: speaking reading, writing and listening Students are more autonomous to follow their Learner- Centered (Process) own paths, interest and desires towards learning. It is unfolded and shaped by means of interaction in the class. It emphasizes on the cognitive processes and Learning-Centered (Tasks-based, procedural) the acquisition and practice of strategies and learning skills. It focuses on the contents. Rather than Content-Based according to language criteria, materials and activities are chosen and organized according to their relevance to the topics. Language- Based(Structures, functions, Its attention is focused both on the morph vocabulary) syntactic and lexical forms of the language. Note. Students’ needs must be considered for the analysis on how suitable and easy to implement a particular syllabus of these types of syllabus. Any syllabus focus must be adapted for each context and learning situation. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 70 A Skills-Based Syllabus with Functions as its Unit of Organization As it was established in advance, the opportunity of focusing in one specific language skill and a strong believe on that “underlying any language behavior are certain skills and strategies, which the learner uses in order to produce or comprehend discourse” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1991, p. 69); gives a theoretical support to the decision of adopting and adapting a skills-based syllabus for this course design. Under the scope of this classroom research, speaking a foreign language can be defined as a communicative skill which can be acquired by instruction and through enough meaningful practice of different sub-skills and abilities required. Concerning the sub skills or sub processes behind speaking a foreign language, Pawlak (2011) claims that the features of speaking have classically been regarded in two main branches: the different types of knowledge that students have and the skills needed to use this knowledge in real communication. Clearly, in this point it is possible to label the sub skills that support the speaking skill in linguistic skills and communicative skills. A skills-based syllabus can be in this way a suitable option taking into accounts the different subs kills and abilities supporting the communicative act of speaking. Nonetheless, given the wide variety of sub skills associated to speaking, an important issue emerging in this point is which of these sub skill or ability should be taken as the central or starting unit of organization of a syllabus for a communicative teaching of oral skills in the foreign language. Richards and Schmidt (2013) explain that for language teaching under communicative approaches, course designer often organize syllabuses around the diverse language functions that pupils require to express or comprehend. Hence, the organization of contents of the skillsbased syllabus around functions is also coherent with the idea that functions reflect the purposes A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 71 or intentions of communication. “A function can be defined as the way in which a phenomenon (such as communication) acts to fulfill its purposes. […] The functions of communication are thus associated with its purposes and effects” (Steinberg, 2006, p.25). In addition to this possibility of organizing a skills-based syllabus around functions, another important advantage of this kind of syllabuses is its door open to the consideration of diverse strategies that could be useful both for learning and for effective language use. Moss (forthcoming), affirms that an emphasis both in learning skills and in language skills converging on the development of metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies useful to learn may be made by skills-based courses. Here in this point and with the reminder of the communicative principles selected for the course, another crucial element to include regarding its influences in language learning and in the development of the communicative competence is interaction. According to Ellis (1999) an interaction denotes communication among people, especially when they have opportunities to negotiate meaning for making communication easier. In his turn, Hatch (1978) also declares that interaction in the classroom positively influence the development of the language since it gives opportunities for practicing the target language. The inclusion of some particular interactional or conversational strategies as a teachable speaking skill could be a really challenging but at the same time interesting element in the course taking into account the communicative approach intended. The skills-based course will consequently combine the practice of selected functions through communicative activities in the classroom with the constant use of interactional or conversational strategies that can, in some way and extent, contribute to the learning of these speaking skills as a way to develop the communicative competence of the students as prime aim of this classroom research. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 72 Teaching Points 1. Communicative functions for establishing and keeping desired social relationship. 2. The use of different interactional skills. 3. The use of different useful expressions to interact and express immediate needs or feelings in the classroom. 4. The use of appropriate forms of language according to contexts, situations and interlocutors. 5. The vocabulary related to spare time, hobbies, favorite places, singers, movies, tv programs, sports, soccer teams, clothes, technology, music. 6. The acceptance and tolerance to others’ feelings and emotions in a friendly way. 7. The importance of a kind, friendly but respectful classroom climate. 8. The acceptance of own and others’ errors or mistakes as a natural product and steps towards learning. Syllabus Sequence and Structure It can be good to start this subsection of course design with two guiding questions: must students be adapted for the course or must the course be adapted for the students? Is there a suitable criteria for sequencing and structuring the contents of the syllabus? For the answer of both of the questions the analysis of needs plays a fundamental role. In traditional processes of course design, courses were designed and implemented taken for grant that in some extent they would be effective for the solution of particular learning or teaching problems inside the classroom. In current times, the inclusion of needs analysis as a constant point of reference behind decisions of course designers add a more favorable issue for determining the suitability and effectiveness of a course. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 73 The decision of selecting, sequencing and structuring specific contents in a course cannot be made only by subjective or impressionistic perception of the teacher. The constant consideration of need analysis and the preferences of the students should be the essential element to ponder when making this decision. After selecting a skills-based syllabus and taking functions as its unit of organization, questions such as which specific functions students are more interested to practice and what in which order of relevance these can be sequenced, are more dependent on the students’ perceptions than on the teacher’s professional point of view. Moss (forthcoming) proposes 4 basic options for sequencing the contents of a syllabus. They are presented in Figure 5. Grading (Easy to difficult) Importance (Urgency, frequency) Options for syllabus sequencing Topic Development Negotiated Figure 5. Four options for sequencing the contents of a syllabus (Moss, forthcoming). In order to know what is difficult or easy for the group of students selected for this research and beyond the logical assumptions that first the easiest and then the more difficult has to be learned, the necessity of not to assume but to base the decision on research is remarkable. Similarly, the option of importance is according to Moss (Forthcoming) very related to the results of needs analysis. Obviously, teachers can have a very important point of view based on their teaching experience to decide which contents are more urgently or frequently needed to use A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 74 by students; however, again the need of taking into account the students’ preferences reappears. Topic development is a criteria more frequently utilized in content-based syllabus (Moss, forthcoming). Analyzing these short precepts, the negotiated option seems to be the initial and most suitable option for sequencing the contents (functions) of the course. It seems very worth to present a list of different functions and topics related and that students freely choose which of these are more interesting, important, easier or frequent for them to use in the foreign language. In this way, the negotiated selection of contents and their sequence (according to their relevance for students) can be a more motivating way to involve students in their own process of learning (Moss, Forthcoming). A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 75 Specific Objectives For unit 1, students will be able to Speaking Skills show an intelligible pronunciation of different forms and exponents using adequate gestures and tones when expressing feelings and emotions choose adequate forms and communication strategies to give to know their purposes or intentions when speaking Interactional Skills use adequate opening phrases and closing phrases in conversations use response tokens or assessment expressions to demonstrate affiliation in the interaction use adjacency pairs for the communicative functions of greeting, thanking and leave taking use oral connectors of discourse like: as well; oh; I see, okay Contents (Functions) Greeting in formal and informal way Expressing joy or concern at another’s welfare Expressing and acknowledging gratitude Leave taking A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 76 For unit 2, students will be able to Speaking Skills connect speech by means of the use of contracted forms and the informal verbal expressions wanna and gonna in casual conversations select and use appropriate lexical forms according to the interlocutors and the context of communication use adequately markers and fillers in pauses when searching for words or other ways to convey meaning Interactional Skills use oral connectors of discourse like: as well; oh; I see, okay provide and ask for repetitions or clarifications in cases of misunderstanding or confusion of meanings negotiated Pay attention and interpret linguistic signals when a partner has finished his contribution in a dialogue for taking turn to speak Contents (Functions) Expressing needs and likes Making suggestions and accept or refuse Offering food or drinks and accept or decline politely. Expressing disappointment A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 77 For unit 3, students will be able to Speaking Skills pronounce longer and louder vowels in stressed syllables of words within their speech (word stress). use appropriate lexical items with their suitable morphological form. include simple formulaic sequences for greater spontaneity and fluency in their speech. Interactional Skills include formulaic expressions in their speech for checking understanding of meaning in the hearer. use simple expressions to introduce, shift and end topic in a conversation. use overlapping as a interactional strategy to co-construct meaning in an interaction Contents (Functions) expressing worry / boredom giving advice and suggestions encourage someone – cheering people up giving a choice to someone A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 78 For unit 4, students will be able to Speaking Skills give adequate stress to emphasize clue lexical items within utterances according to their purpose or intention when communicating (sentence stress). retrieve and organize the lexical items in a good word order (syntax) select appropriate oral register according to the specific communicative functions Interactional Skills use assessment to display affiliation in the interaction. interject and interrupt adequately to contribute to the co-construction of meaning in interaction. use falling intonation as a pre-closing strategy to move into closing in a conversation. Contents (Functions) asking somebody’s opinion giving and opinion asking for help. make promises and commit themselves to some action A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 79 Course Methodology In this course, the targeted practice of communication in the foreign language will not be based in any prescribed universal formula or model to apply the communicative approach to language teaching. Hence, the definition of the methodology for this course needs to be seen as product of the theorized reflection on what are considered and agreed among experts as principles of communicative language teaching. A constant relation to all of these principles will be guiding the different decisions when planning and implementing the diverse activities and procedures in the course. Nonetheless, getting a more practical and attainable selection of some of these principles to apply in this course can be also a valuable option to take into account. Communicative principles selected for the speaking course. With the intention of keeping the essential communicative issues supporting the principles of communicative language teaching, but in the other hand assuming seriously the possibility and necessity of adapting some of these principles to the particularities of the educational context of the public school selected for this classroom research, the following are the five principles of communicative language teaching to guide the methodological actions and decisions in this course (see Table 10). Table 10 Communicative Principles defined for the Speaking Course Principle defined 1. Instances of interaction, negotiation of meaning and meaningful communication during a class can be an attainable objective in a speaking course even with students at low-levels of proficiency. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 80 2. In low levels, students can use the simplest ways of forms to express meanings, purposes and functions; the idea is that when advanced, students will have at their disposal a wider range of expressions for communicating the same notion with greater skill 3. The practice of communicative functions and interactional strategies in the classroom added to the consideration of socio-cultural issues around speaking can be transferable to situations of real communication-even in L1- outside the school. 4. Language is the essential element for the maintenance of social relationship and personal interchanges about interesting, relevant and engaging topics in the classroom. 5. Students are not used to speak in English: errors, hesitations, asking for assistance and some use of L1 can be regarded as normal and natural steps towards learning. Confidence to speak and keeping the flow of communication are crucial elements in the course. Note. These principles have been defined taking into account the level of proficiency of the students and other particularities of the educational context selected. Communicative activities for the speaking course. The emphasis on giving varied and lot of opportunities for the students to communicate and interact in the foreign language will guide the selection of activities for undertaking effectively the communicative approach of the course. In parallel to the definition of principles, experts also have tried to establish a consensus on the type of activities that help to develop oral skills within a communicative approach to language teaching. As a result of this consensus different proved communicative activities have been accepted by experts as useful for the development of oral skills of the students. Furthermore, it will be also valuable the division of communicative activities into functional communications activities and social interactional activities (Richards, 2006) taking into account the functional – interactional type of the syllabus selected. In this sense, this course will A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 81 include communicative activities such as: Information gap activities, information gathering activities, communicative games, conversations, simulations and role-plays. Information gap activities. The information gap principle of real communication is pointed through these activities. In these, the students communicate using their linguistic and non-linguistic resources in order to get some kind of information that they need and do not have. Actually, more than a specific kind of activities, the information gap is a principle applicable and adaptable to enrich the communicative demands of several other activities as role-plays and jig-saw activities. Information gathering activities. With these activities the students communicate with their partners for collecting and filling information (usually in charts or tables) through diverse collecting data techniques as surveys, interviews and searches. Students interchange roles as information askers and information providers during these activities. Communication games or game-based activities. Through communicative games or language games, the students can practice several communicative functions and oral abilities to make descriptions, predictions, simplifications, questions and guessing of information. Useful games such as describe and draw, window, rainbow, secret objects and other can help to create a more helpful classroom climate for speaking practice. Role plays. These special social interactional activities enable the practice of communication in diverse social context, situations and in diverse social roles. Role plays can be very structured or less structured in the extent that the teacher explains the roles of the students to assume, the particular situation, the topic in deal and what the students will say. Opinion gap and information gap activities can also be combined within the communicative conditions of the interchange. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 82 Conversations. With an emphasis on whole group work, pair work and group work, the practice of conversations the students will be taught essential features of any conversation in real context such as turn taking, opening and closing expressions, topic negotiation, fillers and continuers, hesitation marks and other interactional strategies. Evaluation of the course. Inside the classroom and during the implementation of the communicative activities planned, the teacher will have to concentrate in his / her labor of teaching. The management of principles to follow, activities, procedures, materials, time and eventual constraints to solve; the consideration of the different learning styles and levels of performance to face and the unavoidable role of guide and mediator of the teacher will obviously require the total engagement of the teacher as teacher. In spite of this reality, there can be other ways to collect data for analyzing and evaluating the level of attainment of the objectives proposed. The use of audio and video recording, the helpful contribution of a colleague to be a strategic observer inside the classroom and the self-reflection of the teacher immediately after each session of teaching can be useful ways to collect information for further analysis and basement for the improvement of the teaching and learning processes of the target language. Audio or video recording. The special features of speaking as an instantaneous and immediate skill can make really difficult to try to analyze and evaluate synchronically and simultaneously specific subskills like pronunciation, vocabulary, purpose of communication and interactional strategies. The use of audio or video recording, in spite of their intrusive and maybe inhibitory influence in the case of some shy or introvert students in the group. A special attention to the way in which students react to the condition of being recorded, especially the first time, is needed. How motivating can be for students to be audio or video recorded is A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 83 another aspect that only systematic research can discover. It will be also necessary to previously explain the reasons of the recording and its exclusive use for research interests. Thus, for research purposes, the totality of speaking activities to be implemented will require some type of audio or video recording. The posterior selection and transcription of some segments of these transcriptions – especially conversations – to be analyzed will be a fundamental procedure to develop on this type of data. An adapted rating scale for the assessment of speaking skills. To consolidate a more systematic and less subjective assessment of the speaking skills to emphasize during the intervention phase of this classroom research, it is necessary to adapt an instrument especially arranged. Among different scales designed and implemented by experts and presented by O’Sullivan (2008) the practicality and proved efficiency of The Cambridge ESOL FCE Analytic Rating Scale (see Appendix B) seemed appropriated to be taken as a known model to imitate. The descriptors or criteria for each skill and for each one of the numbers in conditions of students in the level of beginners. The skills to include will also need to be based on the results of need analysis in both of its two moments. Hence, difficult but motivating skills to be improved such as pronunciation, vocabulary, purpose of communication, non-verbal elements and interactional strategies will be included when adapting the rating scale for the more reliable assessment of the speaking skills of the students. With this analytic scale adapted, the analysis of the eventual level of development of the students’ speaking skills can be more practical to be determined by the teacher in his / her role of researcher. Both the original Cambridge ESOL FCE Analytic Rating Scale and its adapted version to be used in this intervention phase are presented in chapter 9 (see Appendix B and Appendix C). A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 84 A colleague´s semi-structured observations. There is another important source of information about what is happening in the classroom. In addition to the data provided by audio and video collection, a neutral perspective on different aspects of a lesson can be needed to avoid personal biased or partial perception of a teacher-researcher. The presence of a colleague in the back of the classroom writing down his observations during the lessons represent a valuable strategy to collect essential insights to take into account at the light of the objectives formulated. The fact of counting on a colleague, coincidentally an English language teacher at the school who is also attending studies in Mastery of Arts in English Language Teaching at Universidad del Norte can be a great advantage because of the availability and feasibility of doing observation in the classroom and because of the avoidance of the students’ perception of having a strange in the class. The colleague observer is a known face for the students and this can be helpful to increase their confidence to speak in the foreign language. The colleague observer has been also a witness of the different stages of this classroom research. He knows the implications and challenges represented by the application of the communicative approach selected for the teaching of speaking skills to the students. Nonetheless, the work of observing and take notes freely on all what is happening in the classroom is not so advisable in systematic processes of classroom research. The design of a format including specific aspects of the class and statements to guide the observations to do is a good option in the attempt to simplify and facilitate the labor of the observer. The design of a checklist with 17 varied descriptors and 4 options to thick in (no evidenced, needs improvement, satisfactory and outstanding) is a simple format practical to be filled in according to the observations and perceptions of the observer in pre-defined crucial A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 85 aspects in the classroom. The addition of an extra column to be filled with eventual comments or clarifying notes or suggestions of the observer gives the character of semi-structured to the format (checklist) designed. The descriptors included in the format are classified in teacher’s behaviors, students’ behaviors and activities and they embrace different essential aspects to be considered by the colleague observer (see Appendix D). The implementation of colleague’s observations as a data collection procedure is planned to be done in as many as possible sessions of the lessons to pilot. Instruments for the students’ assessment of the lessons. As the axe of the learning process, the students also need to be considered within an integral process of evaluation of the activities to be implemented. Again, the design of a simple but practical instrument in the format of a Likert Scale seemed appropriate to be used in this classroom research. The scale (see Appendix E) includes 12 guiding questions related to meaningful aspects of the activities such as the interest and motivation which they promote, the materials and resources used, modalities of work privileged; the teachers’ style and the clarity of his instructions, examples and explanations; the emphasis on conversational activities, the number and sequence of activities and the self-assessment techniques implemented. As usual in this type of scale, the students simply have to read the questions and then decide among the four options (muy de acuerdo, de acuerdo, en desacuerdo, muy en desacuerdo) according to their personal perception or assessment elicited. The data collected by means of this Likert scale will undoubtedly have an outstanding usefulness at the time of analyzing the positive or negative influence of the aspects included in the scale in relation to the objectives proposed in this classroom research. In what extent aspects like the materials, resources, activities, models and examples used by the teacher can influence A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 86 the development of speaking skills of the students and which eventual improvements could be made for future usage in the institutional contexts are interesting answers that the data obtained by this scale. In this classroom research, the Likert scale for the students’ assessment of the lessons applied will be the final data collection instrument to use. This decision is made because of the global character of the questions to guide the assessment process. In this sense, it is good to enquiry about the integral perception of the student in relation to the totality of activities, resources and materials used. As an extra opportunity for students to assess by themselves the development of the speaking skills to emphasize during the course, the design and implementation of an instrument more specifically designed to cover this issues can also be done in any of the lessons to pilot (see Appendix F). Teacher’s reflections after each lesson. Maybe one of the most influential element for the directing or supporting of the making of decisions related to the teaching and learning processes in the classroom, is the act of the teacher of reflecting on the effectivity of his teaching. This act of reflecting after a lesson can help the teacher to decide on re-designing, simplifying or modifying what is planned for the next lesson. The fact of applying an approach instead of a given model or method, constitutes the responsibility of keeping some theorized principles in mind without letting the students’ needs and interests and the objectives of the course aside. There can be always a multiplicity of aspects in a lesson which the teacher need to reflect on. The level of difficulty of the activities, the materials and resources used, the management of the time, the level of participation and involvement of the students, the way to react to students’ errors; the facing of unexpected constraining situations in the context, the A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 87 arrangement of the class and the understanding of instructions, examples and models provided are some of them. Complementing the analysis of the data collected by the other instruments with the critical view of the teacher on such aspects of his own teaching above mentioned is an advantageous possibility to explode within the body of the written reflections. The advisability of writing such reflections immediately after each lesson piloted is also a decision that need to be taken into account as a routine to adopt for the teacher – researcher. The focus of each reflections can vary according to the desire of the teacher of organizing his reflections around any of the issues pointed. The use of the data collected by audio or video recording and analyzed by means of the rating scale can subsequently be an important support to reflect, for instance, on how much the speaking skills focused are being developed. On their turn, the observations of the colleague can also be included to stablish an eventual contrast or ratifying of the teacher’s perceptions on the extent in which the communicative principles of the approach are being fulfilled. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 88 The Syllabus IE JOHN F KENNEDY 9TH GRADE ENGLISH PROGRAM A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS AND INTERACTIONAL SKILLS NAME OF THE COURSE: SPEAKING ENGLISH 1 GRADE: 9TH NUMBER OF UNITS: 4 GOALS: Target Goal: Development of speaking skills Learning Goal: Encouragement of interactional skills Human Goal: Encouragement of friendship and living together skills General Theme of the Course: Interpersonal Functions Unit 1: Expressing joy or concern at another’s welfare Objectives: Students should be able to… Speaking Skills show an intelligible pronunciation of different forms and exponents using adequate gestures and tones when expressing feelings and emotions choose adequate forms and communication strategies to give to know their purposes or intentions when speaking Interactional Skills use adequate opening phrases and closing phrases in conversations use response tokens or assessment expressions to demonstrate affiliation in the interaction use adjacency pairs for the communicative functions of greeting, thanking and leave taking Contents (Functions) Greeting in formal and informal way Expressing joy or concern at another’s welfare Expressing and acknowledging gratitude Leave taking Functions Greeting How are you? How are you doing? Long time, no see you! How have you been? Nice to see you again! What’s new? How are ya? What’s up? What’s going on? Expressing joy or concern at another’s welfare Yippie Wow! – Yay! - Hooray Lexical Area Interactional Skills Occupation al plans Favorite careers Happy recent experience Using opening phrases and closing phrases in conversations Using adjacency pairs to greet, express gratitude and leave taking. Using response Favorite tokens to show plans for the affiliation in future conversations. Activities Assessment I. E. Goals Practice of conversati ons with formal and informal oral register. Diagnostic activity Usa lenguaje formal o informal en juegos de rol improvisa dos según el contexto. Utiliza una pronuncia ción inteligible para lograr una Role plays Observation s and audio recording of samples of interactions for analysis and systematic assessment. Conversati ons in pairs Oral performance tests A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE That´s excellent (nice, cool, great) Thanks God Are you alright? Why that long face? You look a bit down. Is there anything I can do to help? Expressing and acknowledging gratitude Thank you so/very much! Thanks a lot! That´s very kind of you! You’re so helpful. Thanks for your kind words! That´s all right You’re welcome Don´t mention it Not at all It’s nothing Leave taking Bye! Goodbye! Bye for now! See you! / See ya! Be seeing you! See you soon! I'm off. Cheerio! Catch you later! Good night! 89 Abilities and talents Favorite kind of Movies Communi cation Games Summative and formative oral tests Favorite sports Puzzles Ongoing process Peerassessment Self – assessment comunicac ión efectiva. L-S. M3 5.Puede expresarse con la seguridad y confianza propias de su personalid ad. Responde preguntas teniendo en cuenta a mi interlocuto r y el contexto. L-P A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 90 IE JOHN F KENNEDY 9TH GRADE ENGLISH PROGRAM A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS AND INTERACTIONAL SKILLS NAME OF THE COURSE: SPEAKING ENGLISH 1 GRADE: 9TH NUMBER OF UNITS: 4 GOALS: Target Goal: Development of speaking skills Learning Goal: Encouragement of interactional skills Human Goal: Encouragement of friendship and living together skills General Theme of the Course: Interpersonal Functions Unit 2: Expressing joy or concern at another’s welfare Objectives: Students should be able to… Speaking Skills connect speech by means of the use of contracted forms and the informal verbal expressions wanna and gonna in casual conversations select and use appropriate lexical forms according to the interlocutors and the context of communication use adequately markers and fillers in pauses when searching for words or other ways to convey meaning Interactional Skills use oral connectors of discourse like: as well; oh; I see, okay provide and ask for repetitions or clarifications in cases of misunderstanding or confusion of meanings negotiated Pay attention and interpret linguistic signals when a partner has finished his contribution in a dialogue for taking turn to speak Contents (Functions) Expressing needs and likes Making suggestions and accept or refuse Offering food or drinks and accept or decline politely. Asking about future plans Functions Expressing needs and likes I am (tired, exhaust, hungry, thirsty, worry, bored), I need …… Just what I need! A/some … would be great. I really need a/some … I like… I really like … Lexical Area Interactional Skills Activities Favorite foods Favorite drinks Free time activities Favorite places Favorite leisure time Fast food Favorite plans Role plays Meaningful practice of the use of oral connectors of discourse like: as well; oh; I see, okay Practice of expressions for asking for repetitions or clarifications in cases of misunderstanding Assessment Observation s and audio recording of samples of Conversati interactions ons in for analysis pairs and systematic Games assessment. Puzzles Oral performanc e tests I. E. Goals Monitorea la toma de turnos entre los participant es en discusione s sobre temas preparados con anteriorida d. L – P – S. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Making suggestions and Favorite pastimes accept or refuse Why don’t we go to … Let’s… Let’s go … How about going … It would be nice to… No way No chance I’d rather not Ok, I’ll do it Yes, I will try Good idea, my friend Thanks for you advise Offering food or drinks and accept or decline politely. Would you like some.. More …? Can I get you some…? Oh, yes, please! Just a small …, please! That would be great, thanks! Yes, that’s fine, thanks … No, not for me, thanks Oh, no, Thanks. I’m full. No, I’m good, thanks Asking about future plans What are you doing tomorrow? How’s tomorrow looking? Got any plan for tomorrow? Are you doing anything tomorrow? or confusion of meanings negotiated Interpretation of linguistic signals when a partner has finished his contribution in a dialogue for taking turn to speak 91 Summative and formative oral tests On going process Peerassessment Self – assessment Expresa sus opiniones, gustos y preferenci as sobre temas que ha trabajado en clase, utilizando estrategias para monitorear su pronuncia ción. L-PS Se arriesga a participar en una conversaci ón con sus compañer os y su profesor. P-S A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 92 IE JOHN F KENNEDY 9TH GRADE ENGLISH PROGRAM A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS AND INTERACTIONAL SKILLS NAME OF THE COURSE: SPEAKING ENGLISH 1 GRADE: 9TH NUMBER OF UNITS: 4 GOALS: Target Goal: Development of speaking skills Learning Goal: Encouragement of interactional skills Human Goal: Encouragement of friendship and living together skills General Theme of the Course: Interpersonal Functions Unit 3: Objectives: Students should be able to… Speaking Skills pronounce longer and louder vowels in stressed syllables of words within their speech (word stress). use appropriate lexical items with their suitable morphological form. include simple formulaic sequences for greater spontaneity and fluency in their speech. Interactional Skills include formulaic expressions in their speech for checking understanding of meaning in the hearer. use simple expressions to introduce, shift and end topic in a conversation. use overlapping as a interactional strategy to co-construct meaning in an interaction Contents (Functions) expressing worry / boredom giving advise encourage someone – cheering people up asking for help giving a choice to someone Functions Expressing worry / boredom I’m (very) worried about… I’m afraid … I can’t stop thinking in… I feel very nervous about …. I’m very excited about … How boring! How tedious! What a bore! Giving advise Why don’t you … Lexical Area Interactional Skills Activities School subjects Observation Role s and audio plays recording of samples of interactions Conversati for analysis ons in and pairs systematic assessment. Games Oral Puzzles performance tests Jigsaw activities Summative and School duties and situations Family problems Friends Leisure time Communicative practice of formulaic expressions h for checking understanding of meaning in the hearer. Practice of useful expressions and social routines to introduce, shift and end topic in a conversation. Assessment I. E. Goals Participa en una conversaci ón cuando su interlocuto r le da el tiempo para pensar sus respuestas. Interactúa con sus A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE How about … If I were you, I would You’d better … I advise you to…. It would be better if you.. What if we… Encourage someone – cheering people up Smile! Cheer up! Lighten up! Come on! You can do it! Try again! Asking for help Can you give me a hand with … Can I ask you a favor? Could you please help me with … I need some help please with … Giving a choice to someone You can … or … I think you should or … or … It’s up to you! The choice is yours. Do as you like! Make up your own mind. It’s your decision. Academic problems Practice and enhancement of overlapping and revoicing as interactional strategies to coconstruct meaning in an interaction in casual conversations. 93 formative Filling gap oral tests activities Ongoing process Peerassessment Self – assessment compañer os y profesor para tomar decisiones sobre temas específico s que conoce. Utiliza estrategias que le permiten iniciar, mantener y cerrar una conversaci ón sobre un tema de interés general. LP A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 94 IE JOHN F KENNEDY 9TH GRADE ENGLISH PROGRAM A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS AND INTERACTIONAL SKILLS NAME OF THE COURSE: SPEAKING ENGLISH 1 GRADE: 9TH NUMBER OF UNITS: 4 GOALS: Target Goal: Development of speaking skills Learning Goal: Encouragement of interactional skills Human Goal: Encouragement of friendship and living together skills General Theme of the Course: Interpersonal Functions Unit 4: Objectives: Students should be able to… Speaking Skills give adequate stress to emphasize clue lexical items within utterances according to their purpose or intention when communicating (sentence stress). retrieve and organize the lexical items in a good word order (syntax) select appropriate oral register according to the specific communicative functions Interactional Skills use assessment to display affiliation in the interaction. interject and interrupt adequately to contribute to the co-construction of meaning in interaction. use falling intonation as a pre-closing strategy to move into closing in a conversation. Contents (Functions) asking somebody’s opinion giving an opinion disagreement with people make promises and commit themselves to some action Functions Asking somebody’s opinion What do you think about …? What do you think of …? How do you feel about…? What’s your opinion about …? What d’you say about …? Giving an opinion I’d say that … I’d reckon that … Lexical Area Interactional Skills Activities Favorite music Favorite singers Favorite social nets Favorite technologic al devises (marks, applications , calling operator, etc) Role Plays Practice and enhancement of use of simple expression of assessment to show affiliation in the interaction. Practice of interject expressions and ways to interrupt adequately to contribute to the co-construction of meaning in interaction. Assessment I. E. Goals Observation s and audio recording of Conversati samples of ons in interactions pairs for analysis and Simulation systematic s assessment. Participa en conversaci ones donde se dan sugerencia s y se toman decisiones sobre temas específico s que conoce. Explica y justifica brevement Games Puzzles Jigsaw activities Oral performance tests Summative and formative oral tests A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE I think / say that … If you ask me that I would say that … Personally I think that… Disagree with people I’m not sure about that! You can be right but, Do you really think that? That’s a good view, but I’m afraid I don’t agree. Changing the topic in a conversation Oh, by the way … Oh, I nearly forgot … That reminds me of … Talking about that … Before I forget … I know I am changing the topic but remember that … Making promises and commit themselves to some action Promise me that you... I promise you that I will… It’s a promise! You have my word on it! I swear that … Is that a promise? I want you to promise that you will ... 95 Practice of falling Filling gap intonation as a pre- activities Ongoing closing strategy to process move into closing in a conversation. Peerassessment Self – assessment e sus planes y acciones. L-P Habla con sus compañer os y su profesor sobre hechos pasados y planes futuros. LP A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 96 The Lesson Plans Mastery of Arts in English Language Teaching Universidad Del Norte Unit 0 - Lesson Plan 0 Initial Diagnostic Speaking Activity Name of the teacher: Leonardo Fabio Benavides Castillo Class / grade: 9º Number of students: 34 Average ages of Students: 14-15 Unit Number: 1. Feelings and emotions Level of students: Beginners Time: About 90 minutes Topic: Qualities of a true friend Goals: Development of speaking skills (Target Goal) Encouragement of interactional skills (Learning Goal) Encouragement of friendship and living together skills (Human Goal) Objective: By the end of this lesson 9th grade students should be able to handle a short social exchange with a partner about a simple topic using known words. Students will also know particular speaking skills to be developed and assessed during the course. Specific Objectives of this lesson: By the end of this lesson, 9th grade students should be able to: handle a brief oral exchange with a partner about qualities of a true friend self-assess their own performance on specific oral skills using an analytical rating scale ACTIVITIES Activity Objectives Teacher’s – student’s actions Materials & Time and Resources interaction The whole class will be asked about Small pieces of 20 minutes qualities and values that a true friend has. paper with a Warm Activate The teacher will write at the whiteboard list of words T - Class up: prior useful words (adjectives) that students (adjectives) to Qualities knowledge remember and use. After that, the rank from 1 to T- Sts of a good and provide students in pair receive a small piece of 8 friend useful paper with a list of adjectives related to Sts - Sts vocabulary qualities and values of a good friend. for further Students are asked to rank (from 1 to 8 use. the most and less important qualities and values of a true friend). The teacher at this point while asking the students about their ranking, model and check the pronunciation of the words in the lists. Practice Yet in pairs from activity one, students Small pieces of 20 minutes Short vocabulary analyze and practice a model dialogue paper with a patterned and once and then they use their own ideas to model dialogue structures in fill the blanks of an incomplete dialogue and a St- St a short conversation using the vocabulary dialogue conversatio practiced in activity one. Then, they similar to this n about practice the conversation completed with but with blanks qualities or his / her partner. to fill. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Directed dialogue Students selfassessme nt 97 values of a true friend Handle a brief oral exchange with a partner about qualities of a true friend Students are asked to make up their own dialogues based on a defined situation that the teacher explains (in L1). Students have to talk about qualities or values of a true friend trying to improvise and sound as natural as possible. The teacher records the exchanges for further assessment. Self-assess own performanc e on specific oral skills using an analytical rating scale Students in pairs are asked to complete an Rating scales analytical rating scale with descriptors on in a piece of speaking skills such as pronunciation, paper vocabulary, non-verbal language, communicative functions and interaction and communication. Students read the descriptors and choose the option that best switch their performance on these skills. 30 minutes Audio recorder St - St 15 minutes A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 98 Mastery of Arts in English Language Teaching Universidad Del Norte Unit 1- Lesson Plan 1 Name of the teacher: Leonardo Fabio Benavides Castillo Class / grade: 9º Number of students: 34 Average ages of Students: 14-15 Unit Number: 1. Feelings and emotions Level of students: Beginners Time: About 160 -180 minutes Topic: Feelings and emotions Goals: Development of speaking skills (Target Goal) Encouragement of interactional strategies (Learning Goal) Encouragement of friendship and living together skills (Human Goal) Objective: By the end of this unit, 9th grade students should be able to handle short social exchanges with friends where they greet and express feelings and emotions in simple and intelligible way. Specific Objectives of this lesson: By the end of this lesson, 9th grade students should be able to: use adequate gestures and tones when greeting and expressing feelings and emotions use adjacency pairs for the communicative function of greeting greet and ask about feelings express feelings and emotions SKILL - GETTING ACTIVITIES Activity Objectives Commun icative game: Expressi ng and identifyi ng feelings and emotions Activate prior knowledge and provide useful vocabulary for further use. Teacher’s – student’s actions The students observe a poster with several WhatsApp emoticons. Students are asked to get in pairs for the game. One of the students asks the other How do you feel today? The other one takes a small piece of paper from a bag with a feeling or emotion written. The student tries to answer with adequate gestures and tone Identify according to the paper. If the rest of feelings and the group understands and matches the emotions feeling expressed with the related according to emoticon in the poster, the pair gets a gestures and point. The teacher explains the tones used instructions in L1. He models the way by the the game is played and clarifies if speaker. asked. He encourages the participation of the students and help to create a class climate favorable for the practice of speaking skills. Materials & Resources Time and interaction Poster with colorful emoticons 20 minutes Small pieces of paper with vocabulary related to feelings and emotions T- Sts T-Class Sts- Sts Sts - Class A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Jigsaw activity. 99 Practice the use of adjacency Observat pairs for the ion of communicat videos ive function about of greeting, greetings asking and and other answering daily about expressio feelings. ns. The class is divided in two groups (A and B) and these two groups are then divided in three subgroups. Each group sees a different video and collect specific information (adjacency pairs, greetings, etc) needed by the other group. When observing the video at the second time, teacher pauses, models the greetings and encourages students to practice them with a partner. Concept of adjacency pairs is explained, exemplified and reinforced in this part. 2 videos about greetings and other daily expressions. Role play based on a conversa tion The students in pair listen and practice a short patterned conversation varying the greetings, feelings and causes expressed in each turn. The teacher clarifies meanings and models pronunciation if asked. Conversation in 20 minutes audio (podcasts) Printed papers Sts-Sts with the conversation. https://www.you tube.com/watch ?v=t3cdNkLo4a Y (Dialogue 2) Activity Practice different exponents for the communicat ive functions of greeting and expressing feelings and emotions Objective Greet and Informati ask about on feelings gathering activity: Survey Express feelings and emotions 30 minutes Sts- Sts 2 charts with blanks to fill in. Websites: https://www.you tube.com/watch ?v=1DA9fNpvt FA https://www.you tube.com/watch ?v=dmOKZLeF KCM SKILL- USING ACTIVITIES Teacher’s – student’s actions Materials & Resources First students are asked to Sheets of paper think about how they feel that day and with form to a short concrete reason for that feeling complete. or emotion. Then each student asks 5 partners about their feelings that day Paper for the and complete a form with the presentation information collected. The teacher Markers assesses the students’ performance with a checklist. At the end, students report orally their findings to the rest of the class showing the results in a graphic. Time and interaction 30 minutes Sts – Sts A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Question Game: What make you feel …at home/at school/ in the class? Greet and ask about feelings Role play Greet and ask about feelings Express feelings and emotions Express feelings and emotions Individually students prepare a set of answers for 6 questions starting with What make you feel …? After that, in groups of six they receive a question board, the set of questions answered a number from 1 to 6 and a dice. The teacher models the way the game is going to be played. The dice is thrown; according to the number in the dice each student answers the question. In pairs each student is assigned a role with a purpose in a situation or place to interact with a specific interlocutor. Students are asked to greet and ask and answer questions about feelings. Students are encouraged to use intelligible pronunciation in their performance. 100 Question board 30 minutes Set of cards with 12 questions Sts – Sts Dice Small pieces of paper explaining 30 minutes the situation in the role play. Some clothes to Sts -Sts represent roles more naturally. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 101 Mastery of Arts in English Language Teaching Universidad Del Norte Unit 1- Lesson Plan 2 Name of the teacher: Leonardo Fabio Benavides Castillo Class / grade: 9º Number of students: 34 Average ages of Students: 14-15 Unit Number: 1. Feelings and emotions Level of students: Beginners Time: About 150 – 160 minutes Topic: Feelings and emotions Goals: Development of speaking skills (Target Goal) Encouragement of interactional strategies (Learning Goal) Encouragement of friendship and living together skills (Human Goal) Objective: By the end of this unit, 9th grade students should be able to handle short social exchanges with friends where they greet and express feelings and emotions in simple and intelligible way. Specific Objectives of this lesson: By the end of this lesson, 9th grade students should be able to: show an intelligible pronunciation of different exponents for the communicative functions of expressing joy at another welfare and offering help use adjacency pairs for the communicative function of saying thank you. use response tokens or conversation fillers to demonstrate affiliation in the interaction express joy at another welfare offer help SKILL - GETTING ACTIVITIES Activity Objectives Teacher’s – student’s actions Materials and resources Commun Show an Students are asked to take out an “emotiball” ication intelligible with a specific message to express with game: pronunciati adequate gestures and tone and intelligible 8 emotiballs Emotibal on of pronunciation. The messages are related to ls different different feelings and emotions (I am happy – Short written exponents I am sad – I feel terrible- I feel great). The messages in for the rest of the group start the interaction by papers. communicat greeting and asking How ya doing? Then the ive class tries to identify the feeling or emotion Poster with functions of expressed through the message. Then the exponents expressing teacher presents a poster with the different joy at exponents to use in the lesson. Students another continue playing the game but now trying to welfare and add adequate exponents according to the offering feeling expressed. help Conversa Practice the Students in pairs receive a printed pair of Sheets of tional use emoticons with blank bubbles to fill colorful practice response according to the feeling or emotion printed papers based on tokens or represented. Then, the teacher explains and to fill in emoticon conversatio encourages the use of response tokens or Time and interaction 20 minutes St- Whole class 20 minutes Sts- Sts A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 102 s n fillers to (cartoons demonstrate ) affiliation in the interaction Small talks based on flashcard s conversation fillers in this activity. When the bubbles are filled, students practice short conversations with her / his partner using their pair’s and other pairs’ emoticons. The teacher models the use of response tokens or conversation fillers and explains when asked and cares about the pairs interchange papers. Practice The class is divided into two groups. One different group receives a set of flashcards with images Flashcards exponents representing fortunate and unfortunate for the situations. The other group receives another Candies communicat set of flashcards but with different exponents ive for the communicative functions of functions of expressing joy at another’s welfare and expressing offering help. Students of the first group try to joy at act according to the situation in the flashcard another and go to the other group where they meet a welfare and classmate who, according to the flashcard offering given, can express joy or offering help help according to the situation. If there is a match between the students the pair receives a candy Use as a gift. The teacher also models diverse adjacency ways to say thank you and you’re welcome. pairs for the After that the groups change flashcards and communicat roles in the interaction. ive function of saying thank you. Activity Objective Commun icative game Find someone who… Express joy at another welfare or offering help according to the situation. Roleplay: Good or bad news Express joy at another welfare or offering help SKILL- USING ACTIVITIES Teacher’s – student’s actions Students are given a small piece of paper with a happy or fortunate event or a difficult or problematic situation. After that, they receive a grid with a list of the same events to fill. They have to greet, ask about feelings, expressing joy or offering help according to the situation or event mentioned by their partners. Finally they have to fill out the grid with the names of the partners found. Students are joined in groups of four students (A, B, C and D), A and B prepare to say two reasons about why they are so happy today. C and D prepare to say two things about why they are so worry or depressed today. A and C Materials Small piece of paper Grids printed to fill in. 20 minutes St - St Time and interaction St – St 30 minutes Small pieces of St – Sts paper 30 minutes A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE according to and B and D get pairs. The interaction starts the by greeting and asking How ya doing today? situation. A answers by saying a good new but C answers by saying a bad new. B and D do the same. During the activity the students have to use response tokens and adjacency pairs for saying Thank you. Self – Express joy The teacher presents a model of 5 yes/no directed at another questions and 5 information questions in interview welfare or simple past tense. After that, each student offering writes 5 questions about a fortunate or help unfortunate event that have recently happened according to to her/him and that he / she would like to be the asked. The interviewer has to express joy, situation. offering help, use response tokens during the interaction. Both interviewer and interviewee have also to use adjacency pairs for the communicative function of saying thank you and you’re welcome. 103 Poster with different yes/no questions and information questions. Small pieces of paper. T – Class St – St 30 minutes A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 104 Mastery of Arts in English Language Teaching Universidad Del Norte Unit 1- Lesson Plan 3 Name of the teacher: Leonardo Fabio Benavides Castillo Class / grade: 9º Number of students: 34 Average ages of Students: 14-15 Unit Number: 1. Feelings and emotions Level of students: Low Time: 210 minutes Topic: Feelings and emotions Goals: Development of speaking skills (Target Goal) Encouragement of interactional strategies (Learning Goal) Encouragement of friendship and living together skills (Human Goal) Objective: By the end of this unit, 9th grade students should be able to handle short social exchanges with friends where they greet and express feelings and emotions in simple and intelligible way. Specific Objectives of this lesson: By the end of this lesson, 9th grade students should be able to: use adequate opening phrases and closing phrases in conversations choose adequate forms according to the context and the interlocutor to communicate purposes or intentions when speaking use adjacency pairs for the communicative function of leave taking make requests respond to requests Activity Objectives Jigsaw activity. Observat ion of videos about useful phrases to start and close a conversa tion. Listening activity: Formal or informal conversa tion? Know adequate opening phrases and closing phrases in conversatio n Identify level of formality of some short conversatio ns according to their SKILL - GETTING ACTIVITIES Teacher’s – student’s actions Materials and resources The class is divided in two groups. (A and B). Grids printed. Each group receives a grid to fill in. Group A sees a video about how to start a conversation: Websites: Group B sees a video about how to close a https://www.y conversation. After seeing the videos, students outube.com/wa from one group go to the other group to look tch?v=naCsU7 for the information to fill their grid. Finally t30iA students A and B are grouped in pairs to practice the ways to start and close a conversation. First, the teacher explains that students do not have to understand every word in the audio; they have to pay special attention to the way participants start and close the conversations and to the type of language used. Individually, students listen to several short conversations twice and using a worksheet, they try to classify the conversations, identify the purpose Worksheets Time & interaction Sts – Sts 30 minutes T – Class St – St Scripts of the conversations Sts – Sts 20 minutes A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE phrases to start and close. Action Practice Chain: different Expressi exponents ng and for the answerin communicat g ive requests functions of making requests or responding to requests. Commun Practice the icative use game: adjacency Message pairs for the first, communicat words ive function later of leave taking Activity Objective Commun icative game: Requests wheel Making requests Responding to requests and deduce who the interlocutors can be. After that, in pairs, they compare their answers in the worksheet and practice the conversations. The class, including the teacher, is organized in a circle and several objects (realia) and requests corresponding to those objects are distributed randomly. According to the request assigned, each student finds out who can help them and ask for the object or favor needed. The teacher starts and models the activity followed by the students at her / his right. During the activity the teacher writes down on the whiteboard the different exponents used by students and models ways to answer them. With the students yet in a circle with the objects given, the teacher takes one object (glass of soda), and say “Mmm” smiling. Students in the circle are asked to do the same. When. It is the turn of the teacher again, he or she now says “That’s nice” and encourages the students at his / her right to answer by saying “Thank you” for the teacher answers with a “you’re welcome” When it is the turn of the teacher again, new ways of saying “thank you” and “you’re welcome” are presented and practice. Finally, a poster with the expressions worked is presented for constant use in the class. SKILL- USING ACTIVITIES Teacher’s – student’s actions 105 T – Sts St – St Small pieces of T- Class paper with 20 minutes different exponents for making requests or responding to requests. Realia Realia Poster with different ways to say “thank you” and “you’re welcome”. Materials & Resources 6 printed game boards Students are divided in groups of six and numbered. Each group receives a printed game board representing a wheel with sections numbered, a handout with diverse needs 6 handouts expressed and three dice. Two dices are thrown to select the players (requester and requested); the second dice is thrown to select the need and 3 dices the type of answer expected (positive or negative). According to the need selected, one of the two students selected has to make an adequate request and their partner has to respond. If the player answers adequately, he or she receives a point. T- St St- St 20 minutes Time & interaction 30 minutes A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Roleplay Making requests Responding to requests Simulati on: Kidnapp ed! Making requests Responding to requests The class is divided in four groups (A, B, C and D). Groups A and B receive a handout with a specific communicative situation to role-play having into account its purpose and appropriate requests to do using formal language. Groups C and D receive a handout with a specific communicative situation to role-play having into account its purpose and appropriate requests to do using informal language. After practicing with his / her peer, pairs are asked to represent the dialogue in front of the class. For this role-paly in front of the class, students are asked to bring and wear different clothes or associated objects to better perform their roles. The class is divided in two groups. (A and B) Group A is assigned the role of a kidnapped group with a lot of necessities and few resources that find a smartphone with no minutes to call but with memory for video files. They have to record a video, greeting, explaining the situation and expressing individually some particular requests to a peer in the other group. Group B receives and see the video and record a similar video where positive or negative answers to the requests are given also individually. Finally, the two videos are edited using Movie-Maker and showed to the class during a final snack to close the unit. 106 30 minutes Handouts Clothes and objects according to roles assigned. Sts - Sts Smartphones 60 minutes A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 107 Piloting Initial Diagnostic Assessment of Speaking Skills: A point of reference Through a diagnostic activity (see Appendix G) different speaking pre-defined by mean of need analysis were assessed as a previous step before the implementation of the communicative approach of this course design. At the same time, the suitability and practicality of an adapted rating scale (see Appendix C) for the assessment of these speaking skills would also be evaluated. Vocabulary would be assessed through the capacity to remember and use different exponents and words practiced. The intelligibility and confidence to pronounce were the essential criteria to assess pronunciation. The clarity of purposes expressed as greeting, asking for help, saying thank you and saying good bye, were selected as skills of communicative functions. The abilities for using adjacency pairs, response tokens or assessment to demonstrate affiliation or interest in the interaction and ways to start, keep, pre-close and close the conversation and to take talking turns would be finally regarded as prime criteria for the interaction component. The results of this assessment process are presented in Table No. 11. Table 11. Quantitative Results of the Initial Diagnostic Assessment Process Activity: Qualities of a true friend (Directed dialogue) Pair Vocabulary Pronunciation Functions Date: September 8th / 2016 Non-verbal elements Interactional Skills 1. C - N 1 2 2.5 1 2 2. I - L 1 3 2.5 1 2 3. D - V 1 1 1 (L1) 1 1 4. Y - M 2 3 3 1 3 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 108 5. E - A 2 3 2 1 2 6. L – L 2 2 2 2 3 Average 1.5 2.3 2.1 1.1 2.1 Note. The grades assigned correspond to specific descriptors found in the analytical rating scale designed for this classroom research. Undoubtedly, the high dependence on a previous preparation of a written support was the most problematic behavior observed during the activity. Four out of the six pairs seemed to feel more confident to speak if the script of the conversation was at the reach of their glances. Pairs who tried to do a more spontaneous performance showed a just acceptable capability to retrieve some of the words practiced during activities 1 and 2. Several cases of students correcting and prompting their partner’s pronunciation were also noticed during the activity. The development of this activity enabled to consider the convenience of a constant reference to these skills and their descriptors during the forthcoming lessons. Students need a clearer understanding on the aspects under assessment and only by the frequent use of the format, its effectivity and reliability can be improved. In an attempt to evaluate the usefulness and effectivity of the instrument for the students’ self- assessment, at the end of the lesson this instrument (see Appendix F) was implemented. The exclusion of some descriptors and perhaps the selection of the simplest ones to reduce the number of items for each skill can be also profitable especially regarding the time that students needed to complete the activity. The doubts and questions that the teacher was expected to clarify and answer did not appear and he was also able to perceive that the level of honesty required for this type of assessment will definitely affect the reliability of its results. As a point of reference during the piloting of two lessons of the speaking course designed, the above report A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 109 of this initial assessment activity will be a very valuable data resource to consider during the implementation of the communicative approach of this classroom research process. Lesson One Post-piloting Reflection I can state that the first activity (see Appendix H) enabled the promotion of short exchanges with simple words; the practice of a way to ask about feelings, the use of the interpersonal macro-function of language and the focus on communication beyond errors or hesitations when speaking. The students kept a good level of interest towards the activity and the chart to complete with information presented in the videos. With my guidance, the students focused their attention in specific moments of the videos where the answers to the questions in the chart appeared in the screen. When the two groups returned to the classroom, the students shared the information they have and asked for the information they needed to fill the whole chart. Again the interaction of students likewise the rest of communicative principles of the course were reflected in this jigsaw activity (see Appendix I). In activity number 2 and activity number 3 (see Appendix J) I would not be able to generalize and say that students showed an average high, acceptable or low performance regarding their performances when pronouncing. Some students evidenced good management of tones and rhythms and really did demonstrated facilities and confidence to pronounce. Other ones mispronounced very usual words such as “are” “doing” “going” and “well” in spite of the previous choral practices undertaken. Most of pairs evidenced their desire to show me their performance. I decided to video-record with my smart phone and, in opposition to my assumption, they were not inhibited nor embarrassed to be video recorded: they seemed even more motivated to do it. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 110 Skills-using activities. The implementation of an information gathering activity (see Appendix M) in which students greet and collect information about their partners’ feelings in a predesigned format was the aim of the activity number 4. The chances to speak to a new interlocutor each time, the variation of roles as askers and responders and the need to use the information collected to fill the format in seemed to contribute to the involvement and eagerness that the most of students demonstrated when doing the activity. The usefulness of promoting opportunities for interaction with a purpose seems to be a central issue to consider in the following lessons of this course. Another central issue would be the great deal of participation and engagement of the students in communicative games including some type of interaction around interesting and known topics. With this communicative game with a question board (see Appendix L), I also confirmed the difficulties that I have to forecast the time that students will require to develop the different steps of an activity. I learned that beyond what is planned in the paper, I have to learn to make immediate decisions when some unexpected constraints menaces the fulfillment of objectives defined for a lesson. The awareness of some difficulties evidenced by the students and the perception of the activity demanding much more time than the stipulated made me decide to reduce the number of questions from 10 to 6. Also I decided to suggest or insist that the answers had to be as short as possible and finally to limit the cycles or rounds of the game to only one. I felt satisfied with the students asking to continue playing. As a negative aspect I realized that again the mispronunciation of basic words or the hesitations to pronounce did not allow a more intelligible and fluent performance in several students with lower levels or less facilities to speak in the foreign language. Again the diversity or variety of difficulties, facilities and A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 111 performances within a group represents a very relevant aspect to consider when planning, implementing and evaluating teaching and learning processes in the classroom. The last activity of the lesson was a role – play I explained the situations, the conditions and the procedures to follow in the activity both in English and in Spanish. Due to the fact that all the pairs started to practice their performance, I decided to assign 10 minutes for the preparation. Students, especially those ones with major facilities or aptitudes for the practice of the foreign language, gave the impression to be really motivated to show their performances. In terms of use of gestures and tones, the use of video recording allowed me the analysis of this aspect. The conversations analyzed evidenced that most of students have difficulties to complement verbal communication with the use of suitable gestures and body language. I think that this non-verbal skill is very hard to teach. However, maybe due to a higher confidence to speak derived from knowledge, skills and attitudes already acquired, some students evidenced a better management of gestures and tones during the role-play. The relationship between the confidence derived from the skills already practiced by students and the use of metalinguistic elements when speaking can be, in my opinion, a topic for further research in the field of English Language Teaching. Lesson Two after Piloting Reflection I considered decisions to make for the piloting of lesson 2 based on these positive and negative aspects found during the piloting of lesson 1. The maintenance of an initial communicative game to awake interest, the use of posters or billboards for a constant reference of the exponents to use during interactions and some modifications to make the activities simpler were then those well-founded or justified decisions. On the other hand, I thoughtfully considered the probability of perhaps deciding to apply only one activity per class (50-60 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 112 minutes) according to the probable time wasted solving constraints and the desire to avoid the frustration perceived in several students in lesson 1 when time allotted was not enough to permit their participating in the activities. After a fast review and practice of the topic of lesson 1, I presented the communicative game (Emotiballs) as the first activity to do. As usual in this group, volunteer students participated in this activity and the interest and motivation of most of the rest of students were high. I could in this way verify the effectiveness of communicative games to motivate interaction and the use of posters for the visual support needed for the practice of the speaking skills in this stage of skill- getting activities in the lesson plans designed. The modification that I decided to do for the second activity (see Appendix N) consisted on placing randomly on the walls of the classroom the messages to be used for each bubble. Instead of the students thinking and deciding how to fill the bubbles according to the feelings expressed by the emoticons in the paper, now they had to go around the classroom, read the different messages and try to find the best pair of utterances to fill the bubbles in. I thought that the activity as initially planned was going to be difficult to do for the students due to the implied need of unknown vocabulary for beginners and consequently, the activity would have taken more time, effort and too high dependence on the teacher to be done. The requirement of active movement, the challenge of finding the matching messages and the information-gap principle reflected on the activity made the students to get really involved and motivated to do the activity. I emphasized in the usefulness of response tokens and continuers to denote interest during an interaction and to avoid silent periods that breaks communication while retrieving the words needed especially when speaking the target language. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 113 Nonetheless, aspects such as the length of the utterances practiced during the activity, the adequacy of tones and gestures to complement the oral performance and the huge difficulty or lots of doubts perceived in most of the students when pronouncing both basic and unknown vocabulary were areas of improvement detected. The decision of implementing one speaking activity per lesson seems to be more useful to give more time and opportunities to the students for the practice of their oral skills. Taking into account that in the institutional life there are some usual constraining situations to solve and some institutional procedures to follow during a class. So, maybe the communicative approach of the speaking course under piloting need to be adapted or contextualized to these institutional routines, procedures and constraints. Moreover, developing one activity per class (60 minutes) makes me feel unworried or unstressed for completing one activity for starting a new one. Students also declared agreement with this decision because when developing one activity, other activity and other activity (just like in lesson 1) during the same class, they can feel overloading, stressed and even frustrated when time impeded their will to participate in an activity. Also I noticed that in spite of three previous more controlled and modeled activities of the lesson, the students evidenced and expressed the need of refreshing and having at the reach of their sight some of the exponents needed for the activity. I had decided not to use the poster and billboards used in the three previous activities in order to check the students’ capacity of retrieval of exponents practiced. Unfortunately, I observed lot of difficulties in the students to do so and after some more time noting that students had not internalized the exponents practiced during the previous activities, I decided to write at the whiteboard some of the exponents needed by the students. I also noticed that most of students recognized the meaning and interactional A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 114 function of the expressions How about you? and What about you? Little by little, students were able to worthy decide about expressing joy or concern according to the situation mentioned by the interlocutor. After my suggestions on to do so, I was also satisfied with the perception of some use of some response tokens or conversation continuers by some pairs or interlocutors. In spite of the usual mispronunciation of previously practiced words and the constraining situations. I think that the activity fulfilled its objective in an acceptable level. What is clear is the need of “refreshing” practice of exponents before the final performance of the activities and the declared and emphasized need of previous models to guide the students even in skill-using activities where more independent and less controlled performances are expected. Concerning the speaking skills focused in this speaking course, the usual mispronouncing of basic for the level words like “I”, “great”, “game” or “boyfriend” among others influenced the level of intelligibility on several students’ speech. I perceived that the placement of a model dialogue, and of the poster with the exponents at the reach of the glance of students, mediated successfully their performance. Furthermore I felt that the poster avoided the high dependence on me for lexical issues. Taking into account that students are beginners and that they are just being introduced to methodologies focused on communication, the fact that these mediational tools really facilitated their performance, this finding can be a useful finding for the future refinement of the approach. The reflection on the feasibility and on the degree of coherence between the final activity of the lesson and the objectives established made me reconsider and substitute a self-directed interview with a less complex one: short paired exchanges based on a flow diagram (see Appendix O). In two out of the four stations of the exchange represented in the flow diagram A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 115 student had to include own personal ideas (feelings and good or bad news) and decide whether expressing joy or solidarity according to this. This requirement preserved the information-gap principle that characterizes communicative activities. As usual, several mispronunciations of basic words affected the intelligibility of their utterances, but they showed a satisfactory level of use of the communicative functions and interactional strategies established for the activity. Several outstanding samples of spontaneous inclusion of natural gestures and body language were also noticed. Concerning the retrieval of vocabulary (exponents) during the activity, a good amount of students were able to do a good retrieval of exponents without looking at those ones presented in the diagram. Synthesis of Piloting Results I piloted one 60 minutes diagnostic lesson and two lessons of the speaking course designed. The development of the two lessons took four weeks with twelve sessions of 50 minutes representing about 600 piloting minutes. During the two lessons piloted students developed a total of 12 communicative activities such as communicative games, role-plays, information-gathering activities, jigsaw activities and short conversations supported on flashcards, bubbles and flow diagrams. After the piloting of the first lessons I decided to make some modifications related to the amount of activities per session, their level of complexity and the time allotted for them. Regarding the development of speaking skills pointed as the objective of the course designed, I adapted and used a rating scale for the assessment of specific speaking skills such as pronunciation, vocabulary retrieval, non-verbal elements, intentions or communicative functions and interactional strategies during one specific final activity of each lesson applied. The implementation of a diagnostic activity, the semi-structured observations of a colleague, the A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 116 students’ self-assessment instruments applied, and my own reflections after each lesson provided useful data both for the determination of the level of development of the students’ speaking skills emphasized during the course. In their turn, this data collected during the piloting phase are also useful for the definition of institutional teaching and learning factors that can promote or hinder obstruct the implementation of communicative approaches for the teaching of English as a foreign language in my educational context. Development of speaking skills. The adaptation and implementation of a rating scale (see appendix G) allows me to have a more objective, measurable and comparable basement to complement the perceptions and descriptions obtained by means of the use of other instruments - colleague`s observations, students’ self-assessment and my own after piloting reflections basically for the collection of qualitative data. The results of the assessment process using the Grades in the Rating Scale rating scale are presented in Figure No. 6 5,5 5 4,5 4 3,5 3 2,5 2 1,5 1 5 2,3 2,1 3 2,5 3,5 3,1 2,66 2,2 1,5 Diagnostic Lesson Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Pronunciation 2,3 3 3,1 Vocabulary 1,5 5 3,5 Communicative Functions 2,1 5 3,1 Non-Verbal Elements 2,1 2,5 2,2 Interactional Strategies 2,1 3 2,66 Lessons Piloted Pronunciation Vocabulary Non-Verbal Elements Interactional Strategies Communicative Functions Figure 6 Development of speaking skills assessed through the rating scale adapted for the course A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 117 Regarding the development of pronunciation, the descriptors of this speaking skill in the rating scale focused on 3 aspects: intelligibility, accurate pronunciation of basic words within the exponents used and confidence to speak. Some level of increase in this skill can be regarded. In spite of my previous modelling and beyond outstanding performances of some students, the persistence of several cases of mispronunciations of known words likewise some cases of doubtful speakers influenced this reduced level of improvement of pronunciation. The almost symmetric results of the assessment process on vocabulary and use of communicative functions can be explained by the directed relation between the exponents practiced and the communicative functions that they expressed. The fact that due to time limitations only 4 pairs, the 4 most skillful pairs developed the assessment activity in lesson 1 and the low level of difficulty of the activity can explain the difference in rating between the results of the lesson 1 and the results of the lesson 2 in these interrelated skills. The assessment activity in lesson 2 included a higher level of complexity and more heterogeneous performances and variables levels of proficiency were observed among the pairs and between the interlocutors within the pairs. Descriptors of these skills in the rating scale focused on the frequency of glances that students did on the visual mediational tool (model dialogue in diagnostic lesson, written support in lesson 1 and diagram in lesson 2) and in the level of clarity and perceptibility of the communicative functions to be assessed during the activities. Anyway, even with less skillful students being assessed in lesson 2, it is noted an increase or improvement on these skills and the interdependence between them is also demonstrated in the graphic. I established observable behaviors like use of appropriate gestures, facial expressions, spontaneous hands movement while speaking, body language and eyes-contact as the non-verbal elements to assess within the interactions of the students. Due to the level of spontaneity that the A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 118 use of these elements require, this was maybe the most difficult speaking skill to teach and develop in the students because it is very challenging to influence on cases of shyness, introvert personality or even low self-esteem evidenced in some students. I suggested, modeled and even mimicked ways to saying and expressing with non-verbal elements different feelings and emotions (topic of the unit). For me, this skill can be very valuable especially when trying to convey meaning in a foreign language with limited vocabulary or low level of proficiency in the target language. Subsequently, maybe the outstanding rate of some more extrovert or outgoing students influenced the minimum increase in this skill. I could observe a similar minimum level of development of the interactional skills targeted in the lessons. These can be simplified to the use of adjacency pairs, response tokens, assessment; appropriate use of How about you? or What about you? and conversation fillers during the students’ interactions. The perception that students really understood and recognized the use and communicative functions of these interactional elements was a satisfactory achievement during the lessons piloted. Students showed an increasing level of use of these interactional strategies that plays a fundamental role within the communicative approach and the interpersonal function of language privileged in the course. Favorable teaching and learning factors to implement CLT in the school. In this section, I will present a recount of diverse teaching and learning factors defined through the analysis of valuable qualitative data from 3 instruments: the semi structured observations of a colleague (see appendix H), a Likert scale for the students’ self-assessment (see appendix I) and personal reflections after the piloting of each lesson. Communication games and students’ motivation to speak in the foreign language. As noted in my reflections, the inclusion of communicative games as warm-up activities in each A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 119 lesson motivated students to participate and allowed me to introduce the topics of the lesson in an interesting way for students. According to my colleague’s observations, the use of questions and answers within these communicative games promoted the communication among students from the very beginning of the lesson. Visual tools to mediate the oral performance of the students. The inclusion of visual tools like posters, billboards, charts and diagrams to guide or support the performance of the students seemed to facilitate their practice of speaking skills and it also allowed me to reduce the amount of extra assistances, explanations or tiring repetitions of the same guidelines or prompts. The possibility of reusing the posters or billboards to activate or refresh vocabulary and skills at the beginning of a new session was another advantage of this type of mediation. Models and previous practice to guide students’ performance. In the colleagues’ observation it was declared that the use of charts, model printed dialogues, papers stick on the walls and the samples or models of performance that I provided helped the students to carry out the activities of the lesson. Previous practices were also useful for the students to be more confident to speak. Number of activities per session and students’ interest and engagement. As consigned in the reflection number 2, the decision of applying one only activity per session made me feel no stressed for time constraints and enabled more opportunities for students to participate in the activities. Nonetheless, my colleague observer declared that time kept on being a constraint in the final activity of the lesson 2. In their turn, all of students in the self-assessment format expressed their agreement on this so fundamental decision for the piloting of lesson 2. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 120 Pair work and students’ confidence to speak. All of the students declared in the selfassessment format to be agree with these modalities of work privileged. According to them, working in pairs help them to feel more confident to speak in the foreign language. Video recording as a motivating factor for the students to speak. After the implementation of audio recording for data collection in some activities, I decided to check the students’ reaction when being video-recorded and surprisingly they showed nor rejection nor discomfort. Video recording especially enabled the assessment of non-verbal elements using the rating scale adapted for the course. Promotion of communication or interaction is possible with beginners. Since the very beginning of the sessions, I encouraged the interaction or communication among students. The sequence from activities requiring one-word answers to activities requiring 4 – 5 words exchanges provided varied opportunities to interact in the foreign language. This promotion or encouragement of communication was reported in my colleague’s observations. The modification of activities explained in my reflections was intended to facilitate a more effective interaction among students. Varied types of materials to match different learning styles. In the self-assessment format (see Appendix I), all of the students declared that resources and material used during the lessons really facilitated the practice of their speaking skills. As described in my reflections, the lessons included observation of videos, listening to short conversations in audio, visual aids (poster, billboards, diagrams, slices of paper), realia, worksheets and formats to collect information. According to my colleague’s observation, the materials and resources used were effective to promote interaction among students. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 121 Variety of activities and levels of complexity. The combination of communicative games, role-plays, jigsaws, information-gathering activities and short conversations going from the easiest to the most complex ones enabled a varied and well-sequenced development of the activities planned. Modifiability of activities and flexibility of the lessons planned. The consideration of different areas of improvement obtained during the piloting of activities of lesson 1, likewise the flexibility and capacity to modify or simplify procedures or steps, constituted a useful factor to take into account in the plan ahead. Nonetheless, the modifications or simplification of activities, described in my reflections, did not affect the provision of opportunities to communicative focused in each activity. Teacher’s style, good humor and class climate. All of students declared to be agree on the way and style that teacher oriented the sessions. During the sessions some instances of humor and jokes were favorable to create or maintain a relaxed and participative classroom climate. I did not assume an authoritarian or power teaching position and this really was helpful to reduce the stress, anxiety and lack of confidence to speak in the foreign language. Understanding of instructions and use of L1. During the sessions I used L1, mimic and models to assure that the understanding of instruction – problematic aspect mentioned during the need analysis phase – was clear enough for students to organize and develop their performances. As above explained, the inclusion of models and visual aids helped the students to support their practice and avoided tiring repetition of instructions and extra explanations. Autonomy given to the teacher. This was the most important facility found in my educational context. During about two months I had total liberty to replace what was planned to A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 122 teach with the lessons of the speaking course designed. Students and their parents did not express any rejection towards the change in the syllabus. Collaboration of colleagues. Especially during lesson 1 when I developed sessions of two or three continuous hours, the collaboration of peers to concede me those hours needed was a positive factor. Similarly, the presence in my school of my colleague observer and his disposition to cooperate at any time required, facilitated the collection of useful data during this piloting. Factors hindering the implementation of CLT in the School. Students’ dependence on the teacher. Especially when some level of autonomy or autonomous learning was expected, the influence of traditional teacher-centered instruction make the students evidence an excessive, I sometimes felt it was unprofitable, dependence on me for lexical or pronunciation issues. I realized that for some pairs of students, my approval, prompts or suggestions on what to say and how to say it in English were too important for them to develop the activity. Students’ rejection to intensive rhythms of work (several continuous activities during the same session). After the piloting of the lesson 1, I reflected on the level of students’ interest and engagement in extensive sessions with 2 or 3 activities to develop. I noticed that too many activities in the same session, having to quickly develop and finish one to start the next one, produced a negative effect on the students. The frustration and fatigue detected in several students and the abrupt transition between activities were creating an unfavorable classroom climate. Too intensive rhythms of work can then reduce the interest and will of the students. High heterogeneity of students’ performances. The presence of both outstanding and just acceptable levels of performance in the speaking skills focused in this classroom research A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 123 was clearly reported all along the activities recounted in the post-piloting reflections. The group selected, maybe as any other group, presented several skillful students who acted like natural leaders guiding and clarifying doubts of less skillful ones. Similarly to the variety of learning styles, this heterogeneity maybe evidencing the different levels of proficiency in the group made me decide on modifications or simplification of some activities in the lessons planned. Nonattendances of students to the school. Due to diverse factors, it was not possible for me to have the 31 students during the 10 sessions developed. In some session, there were 24 -25 students, in other ones 26 -27. These usual nonattendances made necessary at the beginning of each session, the refreshing or review of skills practiced supported by the visual aids used in the previous one. Conflictive relations among some students. Some cases of conflictive relations and lack of tolerance between students (especially girls) affected the attempt to vary the interlocutors during one or two activities developed. In spite of this, most of students evidenced a funny or kind relationship with their partners in the group. The natural variation of pairs are a good sample of this. The human goal established in the course had then some indicators of fulfillment in the lessons piloted. Lack of teacher’s experience in CLT. Both the focus on speaking skills and the methodological implications of following a communicative approach requires the acquisition of more experience and mastering to refine different procedures and actions matching this approach. The design and implementation of resources and materials were also enriching experiences that helped me to reduce the influence of traditional form-centered instruction in my teaching. The focus on communication requires the overcoming of that traditional grammarfocused instruction both for the students and for me. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 124 Excessive use of L1 and chances for students to understand the foreign language. Maybe as a consequence of the mentioned lack of further experience on CLT, it was a very hard to me to ignore the students’ confused faces when I tried to give the instructions and explanations only in the target language. The idea of assuring a total understanding of the procedures and orientations to follow made me use maybe excessively L1 during the sessions. Also it indeed contribute to the students’ understanding, I also think that the “I explain in English and then I translate to Spanish” instructions could also have the harmful consequence of denying opportunities for students’ to try to understand the foreign language by themselves. This was a very important area of improvement detected through this piloting. Institutional Hindering Factors. Some institutional factors such as the lack of policies promoting the learning of the foreign language – as a sample, English has only one hour a week in primary school - the physical conditions of the classroom with no available electricity connectors and an air conditioner system dropping on the whiteboard; the limited and not always available resources, the constant interruptions to the sessions due to diverse not informed institutional issues and frequent external interferences to the classroom processes can have a negative or constraining effect on the implementation of a communicative approach in my educational context. Furthermore, the implementation of this type of approaches requires, as previously commented, the defeating of perhaps unintentionally privileged teacher- centered or contents-centered methodologies which can permeate or affect negatively the worthy implementation of language teaching focused on communication. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 125 Conclusions The search of the best method to teach English as a foreign language in any educational context is a hard task for English language teachers in Colombia. Only theorized classroom research supported on information about the students’ needs and interests can provide a truthful basement to teachers-researchers on what way to follow and what decisions to make when looking for a more effective way to teach the target language. Wrong or inexact assumptions of the teacher about different problematic aspects inside the classroom can be enriched or refuted with a systematic and theorized process of classroom research. The classroom research process described in this paper allowed me to rethink and reflect on my ways to teach the foreign language. The constant need of research to update and improve my teaching methods is one of the most important aspects derived from the design and implementation of this proposal. From the beginning, the interrelation between teaching and research was realizable. The variety and richness of qualitative data collected by instruments like observation checklists and semi-structured observation formats, questionnaires and interviews enabled me to have a more truthful and reliable information basement for planning, implementing, evaluating and redesigning my procedures and decisions in the classroom beyond the subjective and biased perceptions of my teaching experience before this mastery of arts in English Language Teaching. The conviction on the inexistence of universally prescribed methods of language teaching and on the unavoidable requirement of adapting specific methods according to the particular features of the educational contexts have been ratified through this classroom research. As language teachers, it is essential to be aware of the need of this adaptation with a A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 126 support in personal approaches to education, language and language teaching and with a constant reference to the results of need analysis. Thus, the focus on communication, central basement of the communicative approach proposed in this classroom research, can be suitable and effective for the development of the speaking skills of ninth graders students of a public school in Soledad if an adaptation to the particular features of the educational context is made. So, need analysis and theoretical revisions helped to define and approach the teaching of problematic speaking skills for students such as pronunciation, vocabulary and conversational strategies. The emphasis on pair-work and the practice of conversations demanded by students was successfully exploded through the implementation of communicative activities like communicative games, roles plays, jigsaw activities and information exchange activities. The use of a rating scale allowed to determine the heterogeneity of levels of performance on the development of pronunciation skills. Nonetheless, the fact that students declared an increase on their confidence to speak was a positive result to highlight. The use of visual aids as posters, images, real objects and flow diagrams was helpful to mediate the practice of speaking skills in the classroom. In this way, the teaching of vocabulary – specifically exponents related to communicative functions – was adapted to the specific conditions of the students. 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(College of Foreign Languages, Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310035, China). Volume 4, No.9 (Serial No.45) Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN1539-8072, USA 39 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 134 Appendices Data Collection Instruments Appendix A Questionnaire for Students CUESTIONARIO SOBRE NECESIDADES, INTERESES Y GUSTOS ASOCIADOS AL ACTO DE HABLAR INGLÉS COMO IDIOMA EXTRANJERO EN LOS ESTUDIANTES DEL GRADO NOVENO DE LA I.E. JOHN F KENNEDY DE SOLEDAD. PRESENTACIÓN Dentro de mis estudios de Maestría en la Enseñanza del Inglés en la Universidad del Norte y como parte de un proyecto de investigación que busca determinar necesidades, deseos y gustos de los estudiantes del grado 9º I.E. John F. Kennedy de Soledad con respecto a sus habilidades para hablar inglés como idioma extranjero. Te solicito contestar en forma honesta las preguntas del siguiente cuestionario. La información que vas a proporcionar en este cuestionario es confidencial y se utilizará solamente para propósitos de investigación. Gracias por tu colaboración. Profesor: Leonardo Fabio Benavides Castillo Grado: 9th B Fecha: ___________________________________________________ Número de alumnos: 33 Nivel de los estudiantes: A- 1. ¿Para qué crees que te puede servir el aprender inglés? Puedes escoger más de una opción pero enuméralas de acuerdo a tu preferencia o situación particular Tamaño de la muestra: 33 estudiantes Para mayores oportunidades futuras de trabajo o estudio en el exterior. Para acceder a nuevos conocimientos y mejorar mi perfil profesional futuro Para poder hablar con otras personas en este idioma A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 135 Otro: 2. Qué tan a menudo te encuentras por fuera del colegio A menudo (en tu barrio o municipio) personas con las que tienes A veces que hablar en inglés o situaciones en las que necesitas Nunca usar este idioma. 3. Las clases de inglés que recibes en tu colegio son el Si único espacio que tienes para practicar tus habilidades No para hablar en inglés. Otro: 4. Piensas que interactuar o conversar con tus compañeros en inglés ahora te puede ayudar a sentir más seguro de ti mismo(a) para hablar en inglés cuando tengas que hacerlo en una carrera universitaria o trabajo futuro. Si No Practicar conversaciones en clase 5. ¿Qué crees que puede ayudarte a desarrollar más tus habilidades para hablar o conversar en inglés? Realizar exposiciones orales Leer en voz alta Otro: Estrategias para sostener conversaciones sobre temas que me gustan 6. ¿Qué tipo de estrategias crees que te servirían más Estrategias para complementar lo para poder hablar o conversar en Inglés? Puedes que digo con elementos no escoger más de una opción pero enuméralas de acuerdo verbales a tu preferencia o situación particular Estrategias para mantener la comunicación mientras recuerdo las palabras que necesito decir Otra: Que los temas sean de mi gusto o interés. 7. ¿Qué crees que te puede facilitar más la práctica de Que las actividades sean tus habilidades para hablar o conversar en Inglés? interesantes y fáciles de realizar A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 136 Puedes escoger más de una opción pero enuméralas de Conocer el vocabulario que podría acuerdo a tu preferencia o situación particular necesitar y saber pronunciarlo Otro: Recordar y saber pronunciar las palabras que necesitas Practicar previamente con un 8. ¿Qué crees que te haría sentir más seguro(a) para hablar en inglés? Puedes escoger más de una opción pero enuméralas de acuerdo a tu preferencia o situación particular compañero o amigo de confianza. Vencer el miedo a cometer errores y que los compañeros mejoren su actitud frente a los errores de los demás. Otro: Trabajando individual 9. ¿De qué forma te sientes más cómodo o seguro para Trabajando en parejas practicar tus habilidades para hablar en inglés? Trabajando en grupo 10. ¿Qué consideras que puede ayudarte a recordar más palabras a la hora de hablar en inglés? Puedes escoger varias opciones pero enuméralas de acuerdo a tu preferencia. Ver imágenes u objetos reales y escuchar cómo se pronuncian Escuchar la palabra acompañada de mímica y otros elementos no verbales Escuchar las palabras en oraciones que se relacionen con aspectos de tu cultura o contexto. Usarlas o practicarlas constantemente en clase al interactuar con compañeros y con mi docente Aprender de memoria listas de palabras en casa y que te hagan exámenes orales Practicar conversaciones sencillas donde se incluyan estas palabras. Leer textos donde se incluyan estas palabras. Escribir textos donde tengas que incluir estas palabras A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 137 Otro: Si 11. Consideras que tener a la mano apuntes, listas de palabras, vocabulario ilustrado, diagramas, imágenes, cuadros, etc; te ayudaría a mejorar tus habilidades para hablar o conversar en inglés. 12. ¿Sobre qué temas te gustaría hablar o conversar en Inglés? Puedes escoger varias opciones pero enuméralas de acuerdo a tu preferencia. No Sobre temas políticos o económicos Sobre temas científicos Sobre temas religiosos Sobre temas de actualidad nacional o internacional Sobre temas que se estén trabajando en otras materias Sobre tus gustos y preferencias Sobre temas asociados a fechas especiales o celebraciones locales. Sobre hobbies o actividades de tiempo libre. Otro: Otro: Muchas gracias por tu colaboración. Periódicamente te informare del estado de avance del presente proyecto de investigación en el aula. Running head: A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 138 Appendix B The Cambridge ESOL FCE Analytic Rating Scale A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 139 Appendix C An adapted Version of the Cambridge Analytic Rating Scale Unit: ____ Lesson _____ Band Vocabulary Activity : Pronunciation Students: Functions Non-verbal elements Interactive Communication 0 1.0 Scarced/few clue words and other basic word retrieved and used in dealing with the activities. Constant use of L1 and / or frequent asking for assistance and / or constant glances and checking the written support (vocabulary). Very doubtful speakers. Frequent hesitations and misspronouncing of words. High interference of L1 phonology when pronouncing. Robotic, interrupted, difficult to understand pronunciation. No clean topic, intention or purpose of communication expressed. Language selection could be more formal or informal in several cases. No use of contextual elements, gestures, pantomime, body language, signals as an speaking skill or as a communication (compensatory) strategy in cases of lack of vocabulary needed. No interaction at all- Constant long silences Avoiding talking turns – fear, unconfidence to speak No clear idea about what to say No evidences of conveyance of meaning No use of response tokens, assessment and continuers, hesitations, conversation markers, etc. Presence of adjecency pairs (very used) Incomplete, unclear independent ideas. No talking turns (anxiety to finish). Some clue words and other basic word retrieved and used in dealing with the activities. Constant use of L1 and / or frequent glances and checking the written support (vocabulary). Doubtful speakers. Constant hesitations and presence of some interfence of phonology of L1. No natural nor fluent enough to be communicatively understood. Topics, Intentions and purposes hardly understood when communicating. Some cases of inappropriacy of language according to context or situations. Inclusion of some use of contextual elements, gestures, pantomime, body language, signals as an speaking skill or as a communication (compensatory) strategy in cases of lack of vocabulary needed. Interaction sounds artificially prepared. Questions-answers static conversation pattern. No evidences of conveyance of meaning No use of response tokens, assessment and continuers, hesitations, conversation markers, etc. Presence of adjecency pairs (full-planned) Too rigid talking turns (planned) No overlaps Most clue words and other basic words in dealing with the activities were worthly retrieved and used. Some use of L1 and / or eventual glances to written support (vocabulary). Confident apeakers. Some hesitations when pronouncing. Aspects to improve in tones and rhythms. Speech sounds natural but hesitations or some mispronunciations do not allow a more intelligible and fluent performance. Topics, intentions and purposes basically evidenced when communicating. Language selection mostly appropriate according to context or situations. Worth use of contextual elements, gestures, pantomime, body language, signals as an speaking skill or as a communication (compensatory) strategy in cases of lack of vocabulary needed. Presence of some normal and natural features of oral register: Conveyance of meaning Some use of response tokens, assessment and continuers, hesitations. Some presence of adjecency pairs. Natural talking turns, no overlaps. Appropriate retrieval and use of different clue words and other basic words needed in dealing with the activities. Scarced use of L1 and / or few glances to written support (vocabulary). Confident speakers. Intelligible pronunciation. Aspects to improve in tones and rhythms. Speech sounds natural and some attempt to be fluent is perceived. Topics, intentions and purposes clearly expressed and understood when communicating. Some aspects to inprove in the selection of language according to context or situations. Good use of contextual elements, gestures, pantomime, body language, signals as an speaking skill or as a communication (compensatory) strategy in cases of lack of vocabulary needed. Presence of natural features of oral register: Evidence of conveyance of meaning Some use of response tokens, assessment and continuers, hesitations. Presence of adjecency pairs Natural talking turns no overlaps Instances of negotiation of meaning Quickly retrieve and use different clue words and other basic words needed in dealing with the activities. No use of L1 nor looks at written support (vocabulary) High confident speakers Intelligible pronunciation. Good tones and rhythms. Speech sounds natural and fluent in the level. Topics, intentions and purposes clearly expressed and easily understood when communicating. Language selection is totally appropriate according to context or situations. Excellent use of contextual elements, gestures, pantomime, body language, signals as an speaking skill or as a communication (compensatory) strategy in cases of lack of vocabulary needed. Presence of normal and natural features of oral register: Good use of response tokens, assessment and continuers, hesitations. Well evidenced conveyance of meaning Presence of adjecency pairs Natural talking turns, overlaps and variation of topics Instances of negotiation of meaning Use of expressions for asking for clarifications, examples, explanations , translations or repetitions. 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 140 Appendix D Observation Checklist OBSERVATION CHECKLIST TEACHER OBSERVED: Leonardo Fabio Benavides Castillo OBSERVER: Miguel Ángel Salas Vásquez OBSERVABLE BEHAVIORS T E A C H E R ’ S Did the teacher make use of good directive / instructional skills to create a good climate and organization at the beginning of the class? Were the objectives, the communicative functions and activities to do during the lesson clearly communicated or remembered? Were the students conveniently arranged to develop the speaking activities? Did the teacher promote interaction and communication among students from the beginning of the class? Was the focus on communication and negotiation of meaning clearly evidenced in the teacher’s actions and procedures? Did the teacher provide clear models or examples of what students had to do? Was the focus on communication clearly evidenced in the teacher’s way to manage student’s errors at the end of the activities? Were the instructions or procedures clearly understood by the students? S T U D E N T S A C T I V I T I E S Was the topic of the lesson interesting enough to motivate students to speak? Did the speaking activities get the students’ engagement, involvement and interest of the students? Were most of students involved in the speaking activities? Were students afraid to mispronounce or make mistakes to speak during the speaking activities? Did students clearly understand the way to fill the different sections of the self-assessment or peers- assessment format? Did the speaking activities provide enough opportunities for the students to interact or communicate in the foreign language? Was the information-gap principle evidenced in the development of the speaking activities? Did the resources and materials effectively work to facilitate interaction and communication during the speaking activities? Was the allotted time enough to complete the speaking activities? OBSERVATION No: Group: 9ºB DATE: NUMBER OF STUDENTS: UNIT: TIME OF OBSERVATION: AGE: 13 – 15 YEARS OLD No evidenced Outstanding TOPIC: COMMENTS Needs improvement Satisfactory LEVEL: Beginners LESSON: A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 141 Appendix E Students Self-Assessment Likert Scale A Communicative Speaking Course in 9th Grade Secondary School Level of the Institución Educativa John F. Kennedy de Soledad STUDENT SURVEY GRADE: 10ºC TOPIC: DATE: UNIT: LESSON: SURVEY No: Las siguientes preguntas tienen como objetivo conocer tus opiniones y tu nivel de gusto con respecto a diversos aspectos de la metodología comunicativa implementada en este proceso de investigacion en el aula. Responde de manera honesta escogiendo solo una opcion de respuesta para cada pregunta. Recuerda que la informacion que brindas contará con total confidencialidad y será empleada con fines netamente investigativos En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 1. ¿Consideras que el tipo de actividades desarrolladas en esta Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo lección resultan más interesantes y te motivan más a practicar y aprender el inglés? 2. ¿Los materiales y recursos utilizados en esta lección facilitaron y estimularon en ti una práctica más efectiva de tus habilidades para hablar en inglés? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 3. ¿Las modalidades de trabajo empleadas (trabajo en parejas, en grupo) permiten que tengan más seguridad y confianza en ti mismo para hablar en inglés? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 4. ¿Consideras que el estilo y la forma en la que el docente orientó las clases es adecuada para el tipo de actividades que se desarrollaron? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 5. ¿Consideras que las orientaciones, instrucciones y ejemplos dados por el docente fueron suficientemente claros y te facilitaron el desarrollo de las actividades? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 6. ¿Estás de acuerdo con la manera en la que el profesor te animó a hablar en inglés apoyado en tus compañeros y sin preocuparte de cometer errores? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 7. ¿Piensas que metodologías comunicativas como estas, centradas en interacciones, conversaciones o diálogos cortos; pueden ser adecuadas para que los estudiantes desarrollen sus habilidades para hablar en inglés a pesar de su vocabulario limitado? 8. ¿Estuviste de acuerdo con la decisión de trabajar una sola actividad por clase en la lección 2 a diferencia de sesiones de 2 0 3 actividades seguidas como en la lección 1? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 142 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 9. ¿Piensas que las actividades iniciales de la lección te ayudaron o facilitaron tu desempeño en las actividades finales? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 10. ¿Las estrategias de evaluación, autoevaluación y coevaluación empleadas durante la lección te parecieron efectivas y fáciles de realizar? Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo Pienso que el tipo de actividades desarrolladas, los recursos utilizados y la forma en la que el docente orientó las clases me permitieron 11. Vencer mis temores y convencerme de mis capacidades para hablar en inglés. Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 12. Recordar y utilizar más fácilmente palabras y expresiones practicadas al hablar. A medida que practiqué las palabras durante las actividades me resultó más fácil recordarlas y usarlas después. 13. Ser consciente de que no siempre necesito escribir primero todo lo que voy a decir en inglés. Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 14. Saludar a mis amigos en inglés, expresar sentimientos y responder adecuadamente a los sentimientos expresados por los que me hablan. 15. Practicar y comprender gestos, movimientos corporales y tonos que complementan la comunicación verbal entre las personas, 16. Demostrar interés y atención hacia los que me hablan en inglés por medio de distintas expresiones vistas (Oh, that’s good! Really? That’s terrible!!, etc. 17. Usar expresiones comunes y de uso diario para saludar, agradecer y despedirme. Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo Muy de acuerdo De acuerdo En desacuerdo Muy en desacuerdo 143 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Appendix F Students’ Self-Assessment or Peers Assessment Format THE ORAL SKILLS ASSESSMENT RATING SCALE - PEER’S ASSESSMENT Students’ Assessment Sheet Grade: 9th B Activity: SELF- ASSESSMENT Unit: Lesson Date: El presente formato tiene como objetivo servirte como un instrumento para que evalues tu desempeño o el de tus compañeros con respecto a diversas habilidades asociados al acto de hablar en Inglés. Responde de manera honesta escogiendo solo una opcion de respuesta para cada item. Recuerda que la informacion que brindas contará con total confidencialidad y será empleada con fines netamente investigativos 1. VOCABULARIO Muchas Palabras claves recordadas y usadas Algunas Muy pocas Uso de Español Ninguno Muy poco Poco Mucho Solicitudes de asesoría o ayuda Ninguna Muy pocas Pocas Muchas Ojeadas / Vistazos al soporte escrito Ninguno Muy pocos Pocos Muchos 2. PRONUNCIACIÓN Dudas o inseguridades para pronunciar Ninguna Muy pocas Pocas Muchas Inteligibilidad de la pronunciación Excelente Buena Aceptable Poca 3. FUNCIONES COMUNICATIVAS Muy bueno Bueno Uso de funciones comunicativas vistas Aceptable Malo Muy apropiadas Expresiones según contexto y oyente Apropiadas No apropiadas 4. ELEMENTOS NO VERBALES Apoyo en elementos del contexto al hablar Muy bueno Bueno Aceptable No visto Aceptable No visto Ligeramente planeado Planeado Muy bueno Bueno Uso de mímica, gestos, lenguaje corporal 5. INTERACCIÓN Y COMUNICACIÓN Manejo de los turnos de habla Natural Uso de expresiones de interés o atención Muy bueno Bueno Aceptable No visto Uso de expresiones pares de uso diario Muy bueno Bueno Aceptable No visto Uso de expresiones para clarificar lo oído Muy bueno Bueno Aceptable No visto Participación de los interlocutores Comentarios u observaciones: Simétrica Asimétrica Independiente 144 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Activities and Materials Appendix G Initial Diagnostic Activity A true friend Worksheet No. 1 Grade: 9th Date: 1. Ranking activity. Work with your partner. Read the qualities below and try to rank them from 1 to 8 according to what you think are the more and less important qualities or values to be a true friend. _____ She / He is with you in good times and bad times 2. Model dialogue. Analyze and practice the following dialogue (A) with your partner. Then complete with your own ideas and practice the second dialogue (B). Dialogue A Dialogue B Mario: How do you think a true friend is? Samuel: Someone who is honest, truthful and fun. And you? Mario: Someone who is loyal, supportive and who is with you in good times and bad. Student A: For you, what is a true friend? Student B: Someone who _________________________, _________________ and _______________. And for you? Student A: Someone who _________________________, ___________________ and ______________________. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 145 Ask your partner about the qualities and values of a true friend. Then, tell him / her about how you think a true friend should be. Use words from activity one or include new ones according to your own ideas 3. Directed dialogue. Read the situation below and try to make up or improvise a short dialogue with your partner about the qualities or values of a true friend. Situation: Roberto gets to Andres’ home. Andrés is doing homework. He has to do a billboard defining what a true friend is. Andres is something confused and ask for Roberto´s help. The two friends talk about qualities or values of a true friend. A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Appendix H Emoticons Poster 146 147 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Appendix I Jigsaw Activity Feelings and emotions – Skill Getting Activities Grade: Unit: Lesson: Activity: Date: Jigsaw Activity: Observe the video about greetings, fill in the information needed by the other group. Then, share or interchange information to answer all the questions in the chart. Group A (Information needed by group B) 1. The traditional way to greet taught in school Group B (Information needed by group A) 5. What traditional expressions to greet you probably learned in textbooks? is: 2. These are other ways to ask How are you: 6. These are ways to answer How are you questions: 3. These are other ways to answer How are you questions: 7. These are more casual and common ways to ask How are you (to be polite): 4. These are three ways to say Y tú? in English: 8. These are ways to answer How’s it going: 148 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Appendix J Feelings Pieces of Paper Happy Angry Sad Villain Surprised Bossy Embarrassed Nervous Dissappointed Impatient Grumpy Frustrated Scared Shy / Timid Sleepy Proud Silly Confused Curious Excited 149 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Appendix K Patterned Conversation Activity Feelings and emotions – Skill Getting Activities Grade: Unit: Lesson: Activity: Date: Conversational activity: Analyze the pattern of the conversation below. Practice the conversation with a partner. Then, try to make up your own conversation changing the parts underlined. 1. Greeting (Saludar) Bill: Hello! Jane: Hello, Bill! 2. How are you question Bill: How are you doing? 3. How are you answer. Reason or cause. Jane: Not bad. Work is doing well. 4. Expression of interest or reaction. Evaluative comment Bill: Oh, is it? That’s good to hear. 5. Y tú? Expression Jane: What about you? 6. How are you answer. Reason or cause Bill: I’m doing okay, although my car is in the shop. 7. Expression of interest or reaction. Evaluative comment. Jane: Oh, really? That’s too bad! Feelings and emotions – Skill Getting Activities Grade: Unit: Lesson: Activity: Date: Conversational activity: Analyze the pattern of the conversation below. Practice the conversation with a partner. Then, try to make up your own conversation changing the parts underlined. 1. Greeting (Saludar) Bill: Hello! Jane: Hello, Bill! 2. How are you question Bill: How are you doing? 3. How are you answer. Reason or cause. Jane: Not bad. Work is doing well. 4. Expression of interest or reaction. Evaluative comment Bill: Oh, is it? That’s good to hear. 5. Y tú? Expression Jane: What about you? 6. How are you answer. Reason or cause Bill: I’m doing okay, although my car is in the shop. 7. Expression of interest or reaction. Evaluative comment. Jane: Oh, really? That’s too bad! 150 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Appendix L Question Game Activity Feelings and emotions – Skill Using Activities Grade: Unit: Lesson: Activity: Date: Questions Game Activity: First, answer the following questions with a short, concrete response. One dice selects the player (from 1 to 6) and the other dice selects the question that the player selected has to answer. 1. What make you feel happy at home? 2. What make you feel proud at school? 3. What make you feel confused in class? 4. What make you feel angry at home? 5. What make you feel happy at the school? 6. What make you feel sleepy in the class? Feelings and emotions – Skill Using Activities Grade: Unit: Lesson: Activity: Date: Questions Game Activity: First, answer the following questions with a short, concrete response. One dice selects the player (from 1 to 6) and the other dice selects the question that the player selected has to answer. 1. What make you feel happy at home? 2. What make you feel proud at school? 3. What make you feel confused in class? 4. What make you feel angry at home? 5. What make you feel happy at the school? 6. What make you feel sleepy in the class? A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 151 Appendix M Information Gathering Activity (Survey) Feelings and emotions – Skill Using Activities Grade: Unit: Lesson: Activity: Date: Information Gathering Activity (Survey): Analyze the pattern of the conversation below. Practice the conversation with a partner. Then, try to make up your own conversation changing the parts underlined. How do you feel Happy Sad Nervous Excited Angry Sleepy Hungry Sick Tired Disappointed today? Anxious Worried Depressed Thirsty Partner: Reason (why): How do you feel today? Partner: Happy Sad Nervous Excited Angry Sleepy Hungry Sick Tired Anxious Worried Depressed Thirsty Reason (why): Disappointed How do you feel today? Partner: Happy Sad Nervous Excited Angry Sleepy Hungry Sick Tired Anxious Worried Depressed Thirsty Reason (why): Disappointed How do you feel today? Partner: Happy Sad Nervous Excited Angry Sleepy Hungry Sick Tired Anxious Worried Depressed Thirsty Reason (why): Anxious Worried Depressed Thirsty Reason (why): Disappointed 152 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE Appendix N “Emotibubbles” Activity A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 153 A COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING COURSE 154 Appendix O Flow Diagram Poster